Floating offshore wind schemes to receive £31m in Government funding

According to the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS),  11 successful applicants are receiving a share of the money, which is matched by more than £30m from industry. Such funding will boost the sector by over £60m in funding.

The funding, of up to £10m per project, aims to support research and development of technology for floating offshore wind, and bring down the costs of building and deploying the renewable power source more quickly, BEIS added.

The Government said that with global gas prices at record highs, it wanted to strengthen energy security in the UK – already home to the world’s largest deployment of offshore wind – by deploying more home-grown renewables to reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels.

“We are already a world leader in offshore wind, and floating technology is key to unlocking the full potential of the seas around Britain,” said energy minister Greg Hands. “These innovative projects will help us expand renewable energy further and faster across the UK and help to reduce our exposure to volatile global gas prices.”

Among the projects to secure funding – receiving £9.6m – is a scheme with participants in Edinburgh, Belfast, London and Doncaster. The scheme will develop and demonstrate new technologies for mooring turbines, cable protection, floating base design, and a digital monitoring system.

Another winning project, with partners in Cambridge, Feltham, Aberdeen, and Blyth, is receiving £10m for compact floating turbine foundation and anchors that are hoped will enable a 2MW, or larger, turbine set to be deployed in UK waters.

More than £3.4m will go to a Swansea-based project to develop a floating wind turbine foundation with a small footprint that also integrates a wave energy generator.