UK: ORE Catapult, Crown Estate Work on Cutting Costs on Offshore Renewables

The effort to drive down costs of offshore renewables has created another strong partnership with an aim to achieve acceptable prices of offshore renewable energy, especially offshore wind.

The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and The Crown Estate yesterday announced that they signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together on programmes aimed at increasing the momentum of driving down costs of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

The two organisations will specifically collaborate in the following five initial areas:

• Identification of the enabling technologies to deliver affordable offshore renewable energy.
• A framework for collection of performance and reliability data from offshore wind turbines.
• A framework for establishing best practise in offshore transmission issues.
• A reliability certification system for offshore wind turbines.
• Leadership and steering to the Deep Water Foundations Working Group.

Martin Simpson, The Crown Estate’s head of new energy and technology, said: “As managers of the seabed out to 12nm and the rights holder  for the Renewable Energy Zone, we are committed to playing a key role in facilitating the development of the offshore wind, wave and tidal stream energy industries in the UK. We are pleased to enter into this MOU which will see us work closely with the ORE catapult to facilitate collaboration across the entire industry to drive down the cost of generating electricity from renewable technologies offshore.”

Andrew Jamieson, ORE Catapult chief executive, said: “Working in close collaboration with organisations like the Crown Estate will enable us to step up the momentum for the UK to realise not just necessary cost reductions but also significant economic, social and environmental benefits to the UK.”

In addition, ORE Catapult and The Crown Estate will work in close collaboration with the wider offshore renewables industry to deliver uniform standards and overall performance improvement from offshore wind, wave and tidal energy generation.

Detailed programme plans will now be developed by the two organisations in each of the five outlined areas, working with utilities, manufacturers, operators, supply chain and smaller, innovative companies to deliver the economic, industrial, social and environmental potential of offshore renewable energy.

Press release, November 6, 2013; Image: GE