Orsted has launched its UK and Ireland Innovation Hub to engage with start-ups and smaller businesses in the area of renewable energy.
Backed by an initial £500,000 investment, the hub will provide a front door for UK&IE innovators wanting to work with Orsted and support the best that these innovation ecosystems have to offer.
It will form part of a growing network of Orsted Innovation Hubs, building on the success of those set up in the US and the Netherlands.
David Bould, Head of UK&IE Ventures & Open Innovation, said: “There are many fantastic start-ups and researchers in the UK and Ireland with important pieces of the jigsaw to create a world that runs entirely on green energy.”
Examples of the innovative start-ups and early-stage companies with whom Orsted will be working include Spoor, a Norwegian start-up which has built a specially designed artificial intelligence system to monitor and track birdlife around offshore wind farms and Eleven-I, a UK company that has developed technology to detect damage to wind turbine blades.
The Innovation Hub will also support academic research, helping combine Orsted’s existing involvement with universities and research organisations such as Oxford University.
Examples of the projects and institutions it is investing in include Durham University’s Energy Institute (DEI), which will receive funding from Orsted for a green energy systems professorship, scholarships for energy master’s students and a PhD research pot to support research into green energy solutions.
Bill Slatter, CEO of Eleven-I, said: “Buy-in from companies such as Orsted (which is a major developer, and long-term owner and operator) is incredibly important to start-ups such as Eleven-i.
“Not only do they help inform product development but having the world’s largest offshore wind developer showing interest in the systems will also show others that such technologies are necessary, making industry wide adoption more likely.”