Nick Atkins, Marketing manager was lucky enough to be invited to take part in a workshop about offshore wind in Bristol this week. The purpose was to agree the core themes in establishing a Floating Offshore Wind Green Energy Centre in the South West and Wales. This is intended to be one of five centres across the UK tasked with speeding up the transition to green energy and helping to commercialise it for this country and beyond.
This consortium is focused on offshore wind in the Celtic sea with support coming from Catapult, Celtic sea power, the Crown estate, Innovate UK, Exeter, Plymouth and Swansea Universities and the Government of Wales. Also taking part were wind farm developers such as Equinor, wind turbine designers as well as manufacturers both large and small.
These centres are being created as a result of the ” The Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) launching the ‘Accelerating the Green Economy Centres’ call, see https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/accelerating-the-green-economy-centres/ ” “they will; attract private investment to be deployed effectively in clean, green solutions as emerging markets mature and accelerate the exploitation and commercialisation of new knowledge, innovations or solutions through co-investment and partnerships.” (Simon Cheeseman South West programme manager ORE Catapult)
It became quite apparent just now much needs to be done to develop floating offshore wind in the challenging sea conditions in the west. It also revealed the vast potential to generate clean energy in this area and the social/economic benefits to the people in these regions.
Our sincere thanks to Professor Deborah Greaves OBE from Plymouth University for hosting the event and to ORE Catapult Renewable energy for organising this excellent event.