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The money, provided by the government and industry, follows plans announced last week for a huge expansion of the nascent technology. Crown Estate Scotland approved leases covering over 7,000km2 of the seabed, with two-thirds of the new capacity – over 15GW – provided by wind farms with floating turbines.
The technology can overcome the limitations of fixed-bottom turbines, enabling wind farms in deeper water, further from shore – providing access to faster wind speeds.
Up to £10m will be awarded to 11 successful projects from a total of more than £61m, the government announced today (25 January). Aimed at accelerating the deployment of turbines in seas around the country, research will focus on topics such as mooring, undersea cabling and foundations.
A collaborative scheme with bases in Edinburgh, Belfast, London and Doncaster will receive more than £9.6m to develop and demonstrate new technologies for mooring floating turbines to the seabed, cable protection, a floating turbine base design and an advanced digital monitoring system.
Another project with bases in Cambridge, Feltham, Aberdeen and Blyth will get £10m for development of a compact floating turbine foundation and anchors that could enable a 2MW or larger turbine to be demonstrated in UK waters.
“Today’s announcement will help the UK to develop floating wind technology faster and bring down costs for consumers,” said Dan McGrail, CEO of trade organisation RenewableUK.
“The UK is currently the biggest market in the world for this cutting-edge technology and other countries are following our lead. Investing in innovation is vital to build up a UK supply chain that can meet the needs of our domestic market and seize the global opportunities that floating wind offers”.
Scotland is already home to the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, the 50MW Kincardine project off the coast of Aberdeenshire.
The government has set aside a dedicated budget of £24m to support new floating wind projects in the upcoming auction for new renewable energy capacity.
Energy minister Greg Hands said: “We are already a world leader in offshore wind, and floating technology is key to unlocking the full potential of the seas around Britain.
“These innovative projects will help us expand renewable energy further and faster across the UK and help to reduce our exposure to volatile global gas prices.”
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