The Carbon Trust has revealed details of a new European phase of its collaborative research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programme; the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA). The programme is designed to impact the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) from offshore wind by reducing costs, improving efficiency and availability of existing and future offshore wind farms.
Nine offshore wind developers in Europe: DONG Energy, EnBW, E.ON, Iberdrola, RWE, SSE, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall have signed up to the programme. Over the next four years the developers will collectively invest at least GBP 6.4 million, boosted by a further GBP 1.5 million from the Scottish Government, to bring new innovations to market that will help to ensure that the typical cost of offshore wind is below GBP 100 per MWh by 2020. Over the last eight years the OWA has delivered over 125 projects, ranging from feasibility studies to multimillion-pound, full-scale technology demonstrations.
