£10m funding available for offshore wind innovation
Funding worth £10million is being made available for UK innovators with novel ideas to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy.
Up to £7m is available under the third round of the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Technology Strategy Board's component technologies development and demonstration scheme, which is looking to help fund between five and 10 projects.
Previous winners under the first round include Yorkshire based company David Brown Gear Systems, which was awarded £1.2m to help develop its 7MW offshore wind turbine gearbox.
From today, interested organisations can also apply for a share of £3m for the development of technical feasibility studies in the offshore wind innovation arena.
This funding can be used to explore new ideas currently in the early stages of research and applications are encouraged from a range of sectors, including oil and gas, aerospace and manufacturing.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: "This cash will help innovators across the UK develop a range of new ideas to cut costs and make offshore wind turbines more efficient to run.
"This new investment follows two successful rounds of our offshore wind innovation scheme and I would encourage companies who haven't yet taken advantage of this funding to get on board."
The deadline for entries for both competitions is 16 January 2013.
