The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has picked 28 UK businesses for its Fit 4 Offshore Renewables (F4OR) business improvement and supply chain growth programme.
The latest regional F4OR programmes, covering north-east Scotland and north-east England, received over 80 expressions of interest, with 16 selected from the north east of Scotland and 12 from the north east of England.
The latest batch brings the total number of companies being supported through the Programme to 53, with 25 companies already granted or on existing programmes in Scotland, Norfolk and Suffolk.
The regional programmes are funded by Opportunity North East (ONE) in Scotland and, in the North East of England, F4OR is part of business support activities co-funded by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership as part of the North East England Technology, Innovation and Green Growth for Offshore Renewables (TIGGOR) programme, funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The programmes will support the booming regional energy supply chain to fuel the growth in offshore renewables and stimulate supply chain mobility and transition during the green economic recovery.
For the successful companies, the 12-month business improvement and supply chain growth programme will prepare them to compete for, and secure, contracts at UK offshore wind farms by making them more attractive to offshore renewables’ project developers.
The recent leasing round requires that, at bid stage, developers commit to 25% local content in their projects, up from 10% originally.
ORE Catapult F4OR programme manager Andrew Stormonth-Darling said: “The UK’s offshore wind sector is on a sharp growth trajectory as we aim to meet UK Government targets of 40GW by 2030, and at least 75GW by 2050 to achieve net zero.
“This translates to a huge opportunity for the UK supply chain to grab a significant slice of this market, from manufacturing right through to operations and maintenance of these future wind farms, creating jobs and economic benefit for the UK.”