About £7m of the funding will be made available under the third round of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) component technologies development and demonstration scheme.
Commenting on the initiative DECC Minister Greg Barker remarked, "This new investment follows two successful rounds of our offshore wind innovation scheme and I would encourage companies who haven’t yet taken advantage of this funding to get on board."
Technology Strategy Board chief executive Iain Gray added that the funding intends to promote the development of technologies that will reduce offshore wind generated energy costs and ensures an enhanced market share for firms in the UK supply chain.
"We’d particularly welcome ideas from companies in parallel sectors – such as oil and gas, aerospace and manufacturing – who may wish to expand into the offshore wind sector," Gray said.
DECC and Technology Strategy Board will fund 5-10 projects, depending on the volume and quality of the applications received before 16 January 2013.
According to the Offshore Wind Technology Innovation Needs Assessment that was published by the Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group, offshore wind has an excellent potential to reduce the UK’s reliance on imported fossil fuels and to meet the nation’s renewable targets.
