The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has launched two competitions to encourage UK firms to develop new for ideas for making the offshore wind industry more cost-effective. Both will be run jointly with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).

The first competition, now in its third round and worth up to £7 million, will focus on developing and demonstrating component technologies across five to 10 different projects. First round winners developed products such as a new gearbox and foundation structure for offshore wind turbines.

In the second competition, innovators will bid for a share of a £3 million pot which will focus on researching and developing ideas for technical feasibility studies in the offshore wind industry. Applications for both competitions close on 16 January 2013.

Wilding says: ‘These £10 million competitions will hopefully stimulate the ideas and development we need to reduce the costs of building and running offshore wind projects. The results could make a big difference to the industry’s future.’

Source: DECC