Technology Strategy Board announces renewable plant Catapult centre 10 February 2012

The UK-wide consortium bid from the Carbon Trust, NAREC (National Renewable Energy Centre) and Ocean Energy Innovation has been selected to play a pivotal role in setting up the new Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

Its goal is to bring together knowledge, expertise and state of the art facilities to help UK businesses find new ways to capture and use power from offshore renewable energy sources.

The centre will establish its primary location in Glasgow, alongside organisations with complementary interests in the international technology and renewable energy zone (ITREZ), with an operational base in the Northumberland, close to Narec.

It will receive up to £10m per annum over five years from the Technology Strategy Board, and will focus on technologies applicable to offshore wind, tidal and wave power. It will also build links with centres of excellence, such as the European Marine Energy Centre, Wave Hub and the recently announced marine energy park in the South West of England.

UK companies working with the centre will be able to reduce the risk associated with creating profitable products and services.

Currently, the centre is expected to focus on areas such as: establishing a sustainable supply chain for the existing offshore wind sector; and developing capabilities in tidal and wave power that should help UK business bring new products to market and export new technologies.

"The UK's reputation and expertise in offshore engineering, gained through many years of commercial North Sea oil activity, makes [it] an excellent base for innovation relevant to the emerging offshore renewable energy sector," comments Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board.

"The generation and supply of renewable energy is now a major component of global energy and economic policies. UK businesses have an opportunity to be a significant part in this global industry," he adds.

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable comments: "Our offshore renewable sector can compete on a global scale and has huge potential for growth. If we can harness that we will generate billions of pounds for the economy whilst creating thousands of job opportunities at the same time."

And he adds: "In creating this centre we are taking the next step to transforming the UK into a low carbon economy."

Andrew Mill, CEO of NAREC, says: "The partnership between Carbon Trust, NAREC and Ocean Energy is ideally placed to lead industrial innovation in offshore renewables. We will capitalise on the UK's offshore engineering heritage and deployment expertise, and exploit our world leading technology development capabilities and infrastructure to effectively support growth businesses and a growing cluster of multinationals moving to the UK."

Brian Tinham

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