Carbon Trust works to slash costs of offshore wind
October 25, 2008
The Carbon Trust has joined forces with five major international energy companies in a major new initiative to reduce the cost of offshore wind by at least 10%.
This new initiative, called the "Offshore Wind Accelerator", is worth up to £30 million over the next five years and aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind through a combination of wind farm cost reductions and performance improvements related to wind farm design, construction and operation.
The Carbon Trust's partner firms include DONG Energy (Denmark), Airtricity Developments (UK), RWE Innogy (Germany), Scottish Power Renewables (UK) and Statoil Hydro (Norway).
Mark Williamson, Director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust, said, "Offshore wind has huge potential to cut the UK's carbon emissions, generate thousands of new jobs and help us meet our 2020 renewable targets. But high costs and risks have been seriously holding back deployment".
He added, "We have identified a range of opportunities to reduce costs, increase performance and improve the economic viability of offshore wind farms".
A set of feasibility studies will be initiated, with large-scale demonstration projects to follow from 2010 onwards.
Print this page