The Carbon Trust has revealed the eight winners of its technology acceleration competition, part of the Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (JIP).
Funded by the Scottish government, the competition was designed to address four key industry challenge areas that need to be overcome to commercialize floating wind, including monitoring and inspection, mooring systems, heavy lift maintenance and tow to port maintenance.
The eight technologies will receive a share of GBP 1 million, in addition to support from the 14 leading offshore wind developers represented in the Floating Wind JIP.
For the monitoring and inspection segment, a partnership of Fugro, AS Mosley, and the University of Strathclyde was selected, as well as Technology from Ideas and WFS Technologies.
The mooring systems challenge area has four winners, including Dublin Offshore, Intelligent Mooring Systems and University of Exeter, RCAM Technologies and the Floating Wind Technology Company, and Vryhof.
Conbit was announced as the winner for heavy lift maintenance, while Aker Solutions was selected for tow to port maintenance.
“Given Scotland’s unique deep water profile, floating offshore wind will undoubtedly play a huge role in our future energy system, as we transition to a net zero economy and we know that key overseas markets are also looking to exploit floating wind technology to meet their own energy needs,” said Scotland’s Minister for Energy Paul Wheelhouse .
“ The innovative solutions developed by the competition winners will help reduce costs in the sector and could allow floating wind technology to reach commercial scale deployment earlier than previously anticipated and that could prove vital as Scotland and other coastal nations seek to head off the climate emergency.”