The government is to invest over £10 million in new research and development to help demonstrate that wave and tidal energy can be generated at scale, and with lower energy production costs.
Marine Energy – Supporting Array Technologies is a competition for collaborative R&D funding that will support the applied research, experimental development and demonstration of innovative technologies that solve common issues faced by those developing and deploying the first marine energy arrays.
The funding – from the Technology Strategy Board, Scottish Enterprise and the Natural Environment Research Council – will support the successful deployment and operation of the first series of wave and tidal arrays while complementing other public funding initiatives such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Marine Energy Array Deployment capital grant scheme, the Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) wave and tidal energy system demonstrator programmes and the Scottish Government’s Saltire Prize.
The competition will seek proposals for research and development projects that address themes such as: tidal array cabling; subsea electrical hubs; installation and maintenance vessels for tidal arrays; navigation and collision avoidance and anti-fouling & corrosion.
The results of this competition are expected to help UK businesses to build sustainable economic growth by exploiting new innovative technologies in a growing market and by removing barriers to successful array deployment.
The Technology Strategy Board will invest up to £6.5 million in the research and development projects, while Scottish Enterprise will invest up to £3 million and NERC up to £1 million.
The competition opens on 5 March 2012 and a briefing event to provide more information to prospective applicants will be held in London on 14 March 2012. The deadline for registration is 10 April 2012 and expressions of interest must be submitted by 17 April 2012.
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Offshore WIND staff, January 12, 2012; Image: scottishpower