The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) has launched a funding round to support accelerated growth of UK offshore wind supply chain companies.
The £1.5m fund is being administered by the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP), a £100m industry-funded programme set up by OWIC as a result of the Offshore Wind Sector Deal.
This latest tranche of funding builds on the £1m already allocated across three smaller funding competitions launched in the last 12 months.
OWGP funding calls are complemented by business transformation programmes including the Wind Expert Support Toolkit (WEST) and the £1.5m Sharing in Growth (SiG) programme.
OWGP is focused on expanding the UK’s offshore wind supply chain, “fostering innovation, boosting productivity and increasing competitiveness”, by encouraging new entrants into the market as well as supporting UK companies already active in it.
Today OWIC also published a guide highlighting opportunities for UK companies to become part of the fast-growing global offshore wind supply chain.
Collaborating for Growth – Playbook contains case studies of leading companies in the offshore wind sector working closely with supply chain companies throughout the country.
The industry is committed to increasing the lifetime UK content of projects from 48% currently to 60% by 2030, as set out in the Offshore Wind Sector Deal with government.
The playbook contains examples of supply chain companies winning contracts and the ways in which offshore wind developers are engaging with them at an early stage to ensure they are aware of the opportunities on offer.
The best practice guide aims to support further growth by giving visibility to supply chain companies on how developers operate. It will be revised every two years to provide the latest examples on how companies can best position themselves to secure highly competitive contracts.
The guide claims UK companies “lead the world” in designing, building and operating offshore wind farms, with more capacity installed than any other nation.
UK manufacturing companies provide key components such as turbine blades, foundations and cables. Support services provided for example by financial and legal firms offer further opportunities.
The Sector Deal commits the industry to achieving a five-fold growth in exports to £2.6bn a year by 2030.
The document also highlights developers working with supply chain companies on innovative technology for the next generation of much larger projects including even more powerful turbines.
Other “key initiatives” already underway include collaborative work on upgrading ports in places such as Teesside so that they can “cope with the rapid upscaling” of offshore wind technology.
OWIC industry chair Benj Sykes said: “As this guide demonstrates, the offshore wind industry is fully committed to building on the progress we have already made in engaging closely with supply chain companies at every level throughout the country, to give them the best possible visibility of our project timelines and our many high-tech requirements.”