New Scottish Initiative Links Offshore Wind Innovators and Academia

The Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) is launching a new initiative aimed at giving Scottish businesses a head start in developing offshore wind products and services with the help of academic expertise.

The initiative features the Energy Technology Partnership (ETP), an alliance of 13 Scottish universities offering resources in energy technology development to provide developers with access to academics and researchers.

ETP is expected to encourage entrepreneurs and developers from other industries to bring innovative ideas and technologies, particularly those at the early stages of development, and bids from smaller businesses that lack in-house development skills.

The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult is in charge of helping identify the best ideas and the ways of commercializing them.

The program will take successful applicants from feasibility studies and modeling through to testing and validation for the next stage of development.

“We are living through one of the biggest energy transitions in human history – wind energy has gone from almost zero to a multi-billion pound industry in the UK in just a few decades,” said ORE Catapult’s Alex Louden, who leads Wind Business Development for ETP.

“Some of the ideas we have taken through the ETP have started out as sketches or almost back-garden experiments. Others are game-changers from the country’s larger manufacturers. Where you start from is not important, what we are looking for are ingenious ideas that can tackle some of the industry’s key technology challenges.”

The scheme will be launched this month, ORE Catapult said.