Ocean Winds has launched 4 challenges, in cooperation with Innovate UK, in three different areas to achieve high-fidelity wind resource measurements, improved subsea surveys and environmental advancements that will shape the future of renewable energy.
In alignment with Ocean Winds’ Innovation Strategy, the initiative encompasses four strategically targeted innovation challenges within three core areas: Energy Assessment & Metocean, Environmental Impact, and Fixed Foundations. Applications from UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should be submitted through the Innovate UK website.
Ocean Winds, an international company dedicated to offshore wind energy and created as a 50-50 joint venture by EDP Renewables and ENGIE, is proud to announce 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 to our planned projects in the country, including the Caledonia offshore wind farm, as well as our 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 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 which 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, said: “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.”
Ocean Winds (OW) is an international company dedicated to offshore wind energy and created as a 50-50 joint venture, owned by EDP Renewables and ENGIE. Based on our belief that offshore wind energy is an essential part of the global energy transition, we develop, finance, build and operate offshore wind farm projects all around the world.
When EDPR and ENGIE combined their offshore wind assets and project pipeline to create OW in 2019, the company had a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under development. OW has been adding rapidly to that portfolio and is now on a trajectory to reach the 2025 target of 5 to 7 GW of projects in operation, or construction, and 5 to 10 GW under advanced development. Currently, OW’s offshore wind gross capacity already operating, in construction or with advanced development rights granted has reached around 18 GW.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations.
Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialization of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.
