UK innovators are offered an opportunity for testing and demonstrating products and services for the offshore wind power market on one of the world’s most cutting-edge fossil-free energy projects.
The
jointly funded, three-year agreement between Vattenfall and the
Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the UK’s leading technology
innovation and research centre for offshore wind energy, will give
innovators in the offshore wind turbines supply chain the opportunity to
test and demonstrate technologies in real-world conditions at
Vattenfall’s pioneering £300 million European Offshore Wind Deployment
Centre (EOWDC), off Aberdeen in Scotland.
The new £1.5 million
programme is seeking innovators to bring forward technologies to solve
some of the current operations and maintenance challenges facing the
wind farm industry in areas such as blade repair and leading-edge
erosion, robotics and autonomous systems and remote array cable
monitoring and inspection. If successful, companies chosen will be able
to demonstrate their technologies at the EOWDC, potentially securing a
route to market for their innovations.
The programme deepens
the collaboration announced between Vattenfall and ORE Catapult in June
2018, to support innovation deployment at the EOWDC.
Danielle
Lane, Vattenfall’s UK Country Manager, said: “It’s with innovation –
proved in the stormy seas off the Aberdeenshire coast – that the
offshore wind industry will make a crucial contribution to net zero
carbon emissions by 2050. This £1.5 million programme agreed between
Vattenfall and ORE Catapult makes broader thinking real by giving
talented innovators from across the UK the chance to test the potential
of their creations in the best possible environment – the real world.
And innovation is more easily made commercial in a positive policy
framework. That’s why the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, agreed between the
industry and the UK government, is so important to securing the
long-term potential of the innovation we will see tested at the EOWDC.”
Chris
Hill, ORE Catapult’s Operational Performance Director, added: “This new
£1.5 million programme with Vattenfall and the EOWDC provides a unique
opportunity for UK innovators to work with ORE Catapult and Vattenfall
to bring new technologies to market through testing in a controlled
real-world environment.
“Accessing real-world opportunities to
test, demonstrate and validate their technologies is often a real
barrier to commercialisation for small innovators, and therefore this
investment should give UK companies a crucial edge in developing
technology and services for the new wave of offshore wind developments
and help the UK government to meet its target of generating at least a
third of the UK’s electricity from offshore wind by 2030.”
