Eleven offshore wind farms equipped with floating turbines are to benefit from grants totalling £31.6 million, the government announced today.
D-BEIS’s Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Demonstration Programme is the source for individual grants of up to £10million, for projects where commercial partners are committed to matching public cash.
Locating turbines buoyed by flotation collars in the windiest patches of water around the British Isles is the goal of the programme. It has now handed out more than £60million.
Techniques for mooring assemblies to the seabed, for connecting transmission cables, and steps to for deepen innovation in the supply chain in Britain’s coastal manufacturing hot spots, will all be addressed under the grants’ terms.
Scotland’s North Sea coast looks out on the world’s first commercial floating wind farm, Equinor’s 30MW Hywind project off Peterhead. In October, the world’s largest floating windfarm, Cobra Group’s 50MW Kincardine project, began spinning power into the nation’s grid.
A total of £2m will be provided over two years to the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence.
Floating projects in the oceans around Scotland contributed 14.6GW to winners totalling 24.8GW in last week’s awards of 25-year marine leases by Crown Estate Scotland.
Aldersgate Group executive director Nick Molho said: “Today’s announcement is a reminder of how long-term targets and stable policy support can accelerate innovation across the renewables industry.
“Building on the jobs already created by the offshore wind sector in areas such as Hull, the Solent and Scotland, the geographic spread of the projects receiving innovation funding today highlights that the renewables sector – and low carbon industries more broadly – can drive investment and job creation in multiple parts of the country and be a key part of the levelling up agenda.”
