The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Vattenfall have launched a fund to help UK companies develop new products for offshore wind operations and maintenance.
The pair will jointly fund the £1.5m scheme, which will run for three years and allow companies to trial new technologies at Vattenfall’s 93.2MW Aberdeen Bay wind farm off Scotland.
The programme has issued a call for companies to bring forward technologies that offer a solution to current challenges faced by operational wind farms.
Blade repair and leading-edge erosion, robotics and autonomous systems as well as remote array cable monitoring and inspection are among the areas being targeted, ORE Catapult said.
Vattenfall’s UK country manager Danielle Lane said the scheme will make “broader thinking real by giving talented innovators from across the UK the chance to test the potential of their creations in the best possible environment – the real world.”
ORE Catapult operational performance director Chris Hill said trailing new products in a live environment will help UK companies bring new products to market quicker.
“Accessing real-world opportunities to test, demonstrate and validate their technologies is often a real barrier to commercialisation for small innovators,” he said.
“This investment should give UK companies a crucial edge in developing technology and services for the new wave of offshore wind developments.”