Offshore Wind Programme

The world's largest offshore wind resource is in the UK 

Source: BWEA.Offshore Wind: an Introduction. "The UK has potentially the largest offshore wind resource in the world, with relatively shallow waters and a strong wind resource extending far into the North Sea. The UK has been estimated to have over 33% of the total European potential offshore wind resource - enough to power the country nearly three times over.

Offshore Wind has huge potential to reduce carbon emissions, create economic prosperity and increase security of energy supply.  However, many barriers still exist before it can make a significant contribution to the UK’s energy demands.  Cost, variability of output in relation to wind strength , how we connect and transmit supply via the national grid, as well as the supply chain for deployment of wind energy are all areas on which we need to focus our efforts.

The Offshore Wind Programme
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and the Carbon Trust joined forces in December 2007 to announce plans for one of the ETI’s first-ever technology programmes, an ambitious £40M initiative to cut the costs of offshore wind power and accelerate its deployment around the UK. 

Expressions of Interest (EoIs) were invited from organisations from across the spectrum of offshore wind technology and project development, plus other organisations with relevant expertise, to create a range of projects involving research, development and demonstration activities.  Over 130 EoIs were received.  The newly-formed ETI and the Carbon Trust managed the EoI process together, to select project participants.

Projects are now in development phase and are in the process of being commissioned.

Offshore Wind: Current status
Expressions of Interest in this programme are currently closed.  

Four projects in Offshore Wind have been announced. For more information please see our News page.

Offshore Wind: Goals for 2020

• Reduced costs: cost of energy to be reduced to the prevailing least-cost wholesale price of electricity, or lower.
• Increased yields: annual farm availability to be increased to 97- 98% or better, equivalent to onshore wind today.
• Reduced risks: Reduction in technical uncertainties to allow farms to be financed in a manner, and at costs, equivalent to onshore wind today.

The Programme will focus on the technical enablement of large-scale deployment.

Offshore Wind: Focus Areas
The ETI aims to fund projects in the following areas:

• Design and demonstration of novel offshore systems, including technologies that are fundamentally different to those currently being deployed.  This includes offshore-specific wind turbine designs - possibly integrated within alternative overall wind farm configurations (e.g. using centralised power conversion) - and systems for deep-water installation.
• Improvements to existing technologies, to enable large-scale deployment and improve wind farm design, construction (e.g. foundation structures) and operation (e.g. access methods) – including reliability.  While perhaps less radical than the first category, such developments are vitally needed in the short-to-medium term for incorporation in wind farms to be built in the next 5 years; and.
• Supporting studies on other issues critical to deployment, for instance, mapping offshore wind resources, improved environmental impact assessment methods and construction health and safety.