“Offshore wind will be very significant in the energy mix as we move to low carbon, sustainable energy supplies,” said Secretary of State, Chris Huhne, adding that the UK has a wealth of natural resource and coastlines for offshore wind. “We are already world leaders in building offshore wind but we must do much, much more.”
A £5 million grant for Siemens Windpower, applied for under a previous round of funding was also confirmed yesterday. Siemens will use the money to develop a next-generation 6MW offshore turbine with an integrated foundation design in the UK.
“These investments can help our own businesses reap the benefits of renewable energy and help lower costs to consumers,” declared Huhne. “That’s why it’s important that we support UK supply chain companies even in these tough economic times with grants to help them develop technologies to fit the emerging market.”
Grant allocation
• JDR Cable Systems Ltd (High Voltage Export & array cables for distribution of power from next generation, multi Megawatt turbines) - £2 million
• Cooper Rolling Bearings (Develop and demonstrate the use of split bearing technology in large scale wind applications) - £256,250
• South Boats Special Projects Ltd (Modular design of offshore wind farm support vessels) - £300,000
• MTL Group (Develop mass manufacturing techniques for jacket and monopile sub-assemblies) - £250,000
• Blade Dynamics (Develop and demonstrate use of modular blade assembly) - £400,000
• NGentec (Develop and demonstrate new innovative 6MW generator) -£800,000
• Converteam (Large scale DC conversion technology) - £1,000,000
“This is great news for NGenTec and helps us with the funding required to commercialise out world leading British Generator technology developed at Edinburgh University. With the support of DECC this will help us create a large UK based business taking advantage of the huge growth in the offshore wind market initially in the UK,” said a spokesperson for NGenTec.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Converteam revealed that the DECC grant will help the company “will take their 'DC Architecture' through rigorous factory, onshore and offshore tests, to be proven in time for the start of The Crown Estate Round Three deployment phase”.
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