Carbon Trust supports BEIS floating offshore wind programme
The Carbon Trust has been
appointed by the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy
(BEIS) to provide technical support to the Floating Offshore Wind (FOW)
Demonstration Programme.
The £17 million competitive funding scheme, launched in March 2021 aims
to support innovation in the floating offshore wind industry, by funding
the development and demonstration of new technologies addressing three
key challenges: mooring/anchoring, dynamic cables and floaters/foundations;
alongside a series of industry-led miscellaneous projects.
The Carbon Trust, with support from offshore wind technical consultancy
OWC, will assist BEIS with the initial evaluation of proposals, followed
by the provision of independent support and ongoing monitoring of
the successful grant recipients.
Sam Strivens, Programme Manager, Floating Offshore Wind at the Carbon Trust
commented: “The Carbon Trust is delighted to have been selected by
BEIS to support the delivery of its FOW Demonstration Programme. We will
be able to leverage our experience gained through our existing portfolio
of floating offshore wind activities, including managing the world-leading,
collaborative R&D programme the Floating Wind JIP, and providing technical,
commercial and policy advice to both public and private sectors. Our focus
will be to draw on our expertise to help maximise the outcomes of the FOW
Demonstration Programme.
This latest award builds on the Carbon Trust’s track record of managing
and supporting the allocation of public grant funding. Most recently the
Carbon Trust successfully concluded the Floating Wind Technology Acceleration
Competition which saw £1 million of Scottish Government funding awarded
to innovators engaged in the acceleration of floating offshore wind technologies
with a focus on Scottish supply-chain development.”
Tim Camp, Director of Turbine Engineering at OWC, added: “We are delighted
to be working with The Carbon Trust in supporting BEIS in this highly important
project for the UK renewables industry. The development of a robust, flexible
and commercial floating wind concept is critical to ensuring the scalability
of floating offshore wind to the UK’s deeper waters. Building in deeper
waters will unlock vast untapped clean energy resources, significantly
accelerating our race to net-zero.”
With experience spanning across more than 20 FOW projects so far, OWC along
with its parent company ABL Group, brings to the project far-reaching and
multi-disciplined expertise in all stages of the development of a FOW project.”