Offshore Wind Maintenance Robots, New Blade Recycling Method Part of ORE Catapult’s Accelerator Programme in East Anglia

June 28, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has launched an accelerator programme in the East of England to bring new products and services to commercialisation, with nine companies getting a boost to advance their technologies and solutions, predominantly those for application in offshore wind.

ORE Catapult Picks 28 Companies for Offshore Renewables Growth Programme

The companies, located across Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, that will be part of the programme are: Extend Robotics, Fern Communications, Recyclatrack, Exo Engineering, Urban XR, Aquaterra Energy, Front Technologies, Mission Zero Technologies, and Haven Dredging.

Each of the innovators will receive support on their journey to commercialise their product or service, including robots for offshore wind turbine maintenance, recycling wind turbine blades using waterjet technology, and carbon capture devices.

Extend Robotics has developed robots for internal nacelle maintenance in offshore wind turbines to complete basic technical tasks, reducing the need for wind turbine technician interference that is VR-controlled.

Robotics are also the focus of Front Technologies, which is working on the commercialisation of its robotic system with combined shearography and thermography capabilities for subsurface defect detection and quantification.

Fern Communications has developed a solution for low-cost, automatic real-time people tracking utilising a new-to-industry technology which integrates with existing MMS systems.

The programme is also supporting a new recycling project from Recyclatrack, which involves recycling and material separation of wind turbine blades using ultra-high-pressure waterjet technology.

Exo Engineering is developing eco-reefs that provide underwater protection for offshore wind infrastructure such as turbine foundations, while supporting a variety of marine life.

“The Launch Academy East of England programme will inform us of sector specific requirements within the offshore renewables industry. We are raring to expand our team’s market knowledge and improve our offering”, said William Coulet, Managing Director at Exo Engineering.

Urban XR is participating in the programme with a solution that creates a digital rehearsal of concept game area for offshore applications which can be viewed in real-time via mixed-reality headsets or screens for large teams.

At Aquaterra Energy, the programme is supporting the commercialisation of embedded fibre optic condition monitoring in offshore wind, specifically for concrete foundations in floating wind structures.

Mission Zero Technologies is working on bringing a modular direct air carbon capture device that uses excess power produced by offshore wind farms to market.

Haven Dredging is also looking to advance new solutions to the market with its Tiamat dredging device that pumps silt back into the water column, utilising tide and currents to displace sediment and promote self-replenishment of the estuarine system.

The Launch Academy programme will run from now until December 2023 and the companies will each receive support worth up to GBP 25,000.

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This is the first time ORE Catapult has run its Launch Academy in the East of England, a region that is one of the UK’s largest offshore renewable energy hubs, said ORE Catapult.

Funding for the programme has been provided by ORE Catapult, RWE, Norfolk County Council, Essex County Council, and Suffolk County Council with pro bono support provided by Marks & Clerk, Birketts, and Lovewell Blake.

The regional programme has been developed following the previous national and regional Launch Academy programmes that have supported 38 companies and raised over GBP 22 million of investment since 2019.