As offshore wind installations move further out to sea, the challenge of maintaining resilient and reliable communications for operations becomes increasingly vital.

Excelerate is a connectivity and data technology developer, and systems integrator. It provides resilient satellite and terrestrial network connections to places that are hard to reach and specialises in the government, maritime and nuclear energy sectors.

Excelerate is currently expanding into offshore renewables where it aims to further explore what it can offer developers, service providers, and wider supply chain users.

Working with ORE Catapult

Excelerate secured a space on ORE Catapult’s Wales Marine Monitoring competition in October 2025 – an initiative to accelerate the development of technology to support offshore data collection in the Celtic Sea.

The aim was to validate the performance of Excelerate’s ‘Hybrid Edge’ network bonding router and long range Excell cellular antenna – designed to provide connectivity in challenging environments – with a satellite connection, on a live turbine.

The technology was installed on ORE Catapult’s Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine in May 2026 and left on site for several weeks for continuous operation and data collection.

Prior to installation, an additional connectivity opportunity was identified by using a mesh radio to extend mobile connectivity to inside the turbine – a common issue for turbines which block signal coming in.

Each element of improved connectivity aims to support offshore operations, team safety, and more effective continuous monitoring of wind farms.

The demonstration showed consistent connection throughout from the satellite and cellular antennas, and the bonded network that brought both together. The signal was reliably available throughout the entire tower and in the nacelle, showing significant data rates for operational use.

The next step for this technology is to deploy it on a live wind farm, further from shore in a variety of locations, proving the applicability to global customers within this sector.

Excelerate’s network bonding router and long range ‘Excell’ cellular antenna deployed at ORE Catapult’s Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine.

Testimonial

“The support from ORE Catapult has allowed us to demonstrate our technologies within a live wind turbine environment. This has given us the opportunity to collect real data on performance in a wind turbine setting to show potential customers how it could benefit their own operations. This support has opened further customer conversations and enabled Excelerate to expand into offshore wind as an exciting new market.”

Bethan Evans, Chief Operating Officer at Excelerate Technology