Climate Change Minister Graham Stuart has commended progress made by the UK offshore wind industry in 2022, praising the “record results” delivered in the summer’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) round and the move to annual auctions next year.
Delivering a keynote speech at ORE Catapult’s UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight event in London, Stuart also said the government’s Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support (OWMIS) scheme was delivering “real results” for the supply chain.
He added a supply chain and infrastructure working group has been established as part of the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce to address what more can be done to stimulate investment.
On innovation, the minister said the government was looking to “create the right environment” for the deployment of floating wind.
He said the government had allocated £31m, matched by £30m of industry funding, to the research and development of floating technologies via the Floating Offshore Wind Demonstrator program.
“I believe together, government and industry can deliver a sustainable, resilient, profitable and competitive supply chain that we need to stay in front of the pack on offshore wind”, he said.
The minister’s comments came as industry leaders and representatives took to the stage to deliver their verdicts on the state of the sector and what is needed to drive new technologies throughout the morning at the conference.
David Rowan, head of global business development at Vestas, said the UK needs to drive late-stage R&D to achieve its 2030 vision and export knowledge to its other markets.
“I think it’s all these small parts of the turbine that we actually need to work on,” he said. “The fact we are still producing turbines on the Isle of Wight is a testament to the UK.”
Tim Pick, who co-chairs the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce, meanwhile told the conference that leasing rounds for offshore wind sites in the UK were set to improve from 2023.
“When you come to the Celtic Sea leasing round next year you’ll see a far more sophisticated approach to leasing with lots of the survey work done upfront for developers, so that should hopefully take some time out of the pre-application stage, as well as greater dialogue between the Crown Estate and National Grid so you’ve got more certainty on grid connections when you acquire seabed,” he said.