Ocean Winds and Innovate UK Join Forces to Develop Innovative Offshore Wind Farms

Ocean News
19 September 2024

(Image credit: Ocean Winds)

Ocean Winds (OW), an international company dedicated to offshore wind energy and created as a 50-50 joint venture by EDP Renewables and ENGIE, has announced its collaboration with Innovate UK. At Ocean Winds (OW), innovation is key to creating meaningful impact within the offshore wind industry, and this is why the Ocean Winds team is looking for innovative solutions to the four proposed challenges. Through this partnership, OW seeks to promote innovation in the UK in support of its planned projects in the country, including the Caledonia offshore wind farm, as well as Ocean Winds’ wider international portfolio.

Innovate UK’s Innovation Exchange program is a dynamic cross-sector program designed to accelerate innovation by matching industry-specific challenges with companies offering cutting-edge solutions from diverse sectors. With a focus on the efficiency of operations and mitigating potential impacts that offshore wind farm infrastructures may have, Ocean Winds has identified a series of challenges that are now open for applications:

Energy Assessment & Metocean: Measuring atmospheric stability through improved measurements of temperature, humidity, and pressure in remote marine locations.

Fixed Foundations: Advanced methods to perform a 3D ultra-high-resolution survey of offshore wind sites early in development. The goal is to improve data quality and interpretation, which will help lower uncertainty, risk, and costs in the initial stages of the project.

Environmental: Two challenges were launched in the environmental area. The first one is focused on finding a technology platform that improves monitoring of underwater environmental receptors and species tracking, and the second is to improve nature inclusivity in the design of floating wind farms to help promote biodiverse marine life on and around the wind farms.

As Daniel Santa Cruz, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Director at Ocean Winds, commented: “We are excited to join forces with Innovate UK and look forward to discovering innovative solutions that help OW improve our approach to developing offshore wind farms to deliver clean energy. This initiative is part of how we execute our Innovation Strategy and, at the same time, unlocks new opportunities for the supply chain.”

John Ransford, Knowledge Transfer Manager—Energy for Innovate UK Business Connect, added: “We are delighted to be working with Ocean Winds on their innovation projects for the offshore industry. Developing offshore wind farms to deliver clean energy is crucial to the future of our environment and energy requirements as a society and we are looking forward to working with Ocean Winds to help them deliver on their objectives.”