A European consortium has launched a new four-year project, ‘Inn2POWER’ – Innovation to Push Offshore Wind Energy Regions – inviting offshore wind companies and supply chains to explore collaborations across the North Sea region.
Inn2POWER brings together offshore wind clusters across Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK (East of England and South East).
The project, co-funded by the European Union, will focus on strengthening the relationship between these five offshore wind clusters; stimulating small and medium sized enterprises-based collaboration to drive innovation; and facilitating access to test and demonstration facilities to support the development of new technologies.
The aim of Inn2POWER is to expand the capacity for innovation and to improve access to the offshore wind industry for SMEs.
The project will provide specific support for SMEs in developing transnational innovative business cases and forming innovation collaborations. Moreover, it will move to improve access to relevant infrastructure, including test and demonstration facilities and to increase the availability of skilled workers for the North Sea region offshore wind clusters.
“We should consider the North Sea as a potential Silicon Valley for the offshore industry in Europe. The SMEs can complement each other by working together, and the regional clusters can work together,” Glenda Napier , CEO of Inn2POWER partner Offshoreenergy.dk said.
“The benefits from a strong North Sea regional cooperation could well include the development of more systemic solutions of the type that the industry is calling for to supplement the existing component solutions.”
Inn2POWER is an initiative of eleven partners from the five leading offshore wind clusters of the North Sea Region. The four-year project will conclude in October 2020.
It is supported by the European Union with funding from the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Interreg North Sea Region Programme.