Research carried out by financial analysts Ernst and Young has revealed that the UK is the world number one when it comes to investing in the offshore wind industry. The recently-released Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index sees the UK beating former number one Germany into second place, whilst China, Belgium and Denmark take third, fourth and fifth respectively. - Read more »

The Scottish Government has granted marine energy specialists Aquamarine Power a licence to build and run a 40MW wave farm off the North West coast of Scotland. When the site is complete, it will be the largest ocean energy site in the world, accommodating up to 50 Oyster wave power devices generating up to 40MW of clean energy. - Read more »

Galloper offshore wind farm, an extension to the existing Greater Gabbard site, has been granted planning permission by the UK government. The 140 turbine Galloper project will be located 27 miles off the Suffolk coast alongside Greater Gabbard, and will double the site’s current 504MW generation capacity to 1,008MW. - Read more »

Offshore wind giant DONG Energy has announced its belief that it can bring down the costs of generating offshore wind to below government-set targets by 2020. Like all offshore wind developers, the Danish firm has been told it must reduce the cost of producing offshore power to avoid excessive charges being passed on to the consumer. - Read more »

A new type of circuit breaker developed by leading engineering group ABB could lead to the creation of a ‘continental supergrid’, allowing huge amounts of energy to be easily transported across Europe. - Read more »

Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has announced a further £4 million funding boost for the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, which develops and trials new wave and tidal energy technologies. - Read more »

Three offshore wind developers have won a share of a £2.3 million funding pot to develop new technologies that will make the offshore wind industry more cost-effective. The developers won the second round of the Offshore Wind Component Technologies Development and Demonstration scheme, a competition launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in May 2012.

The winning firms and their projects are: - Read more »

Work has been completed on two giant offshore wind turbines which are set to be tested four miles off the coast of Clacton-on-Sea. Designed and built by Siemens, the pair of six megawatt (MW) turbines has been installed at Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm, where they join 48 existing turbines. - Read more »

According to recent statistics released by the European Wind Energy Association and National Grid, the UK’s offshore wind industry is going from strength to strength. Key facts and figures include: - Read more »

A new report has shown that the Welsh economy could be boosted to the tune of £2.3 billion and 2,000 new jobs created if plans to develop the country’s onshore wind industry come to fruition. - Read more »