In an effort to boost the UK’s floating offshore wind industry, ORE Catapult has established the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOW CoE) to develop an internationally recognised initiative to reduce the cost of energy from floating wind. The Centre will accelerate the build-out of floating farms, create opportunities for the UK supply chain, and drive innovations in manufacturing, installation and O&M. The CoE is a collaborative programme with industry, academic and stakeholder partners.
To establish an internationally recognised centre of excellence in floating offshore wind which will work towards reducing the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) from floating wind to a commercially manageable rate, cut back development time for FOW farms and develop opportunities for the local supply chain, driving innovation in manufacturing, installation and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) methodologies in floating wind.
Drive the commercialisation of floating offshore wind for the UK’s benefit – through a reduction in the UK’s carbon emissions and an increase in economic Gross Value Added (GVA).
At this stage the following organisations are partners in the FOW CoE. As the programme of work develops, relationships with further industrial, academic and stakeholder partners shall be formalised.
The Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence and the Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub have agreed to collaborate together in order to support the development and delivery of a number of co-funded research and development projects, focused on floating offshore wind. The projects will look to involve both supply chain and academic partners working in close collaboration to tackle key research challenges identified by the FOWCoE and the Supergen ORE Hub Research Landscape. The format of the projects are therefore actively looking to support the development of strategic relationships between academic partners and supply chain organisations, supporting the acceleration the commercialisation of floating offshore wind.
Projects will be delivered under the Supergen ORE Hub Flexible Funding model, using an innovative co-funded process developed by the Supergen ORE Hub and the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence. More details regarding co-funded opportunities from the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence and the Supergen (ORE) Hub will be made available in due course.
The FOW CoE has established relationships with the offshore wind clusters in the UK – particularly those with most interest in floating offshore wind, DeepWind, Forth and Tay, Celtic Sea. At this stage our broader supply chain engagement is channelled through them.
The FOW CoE shall engage directly with the supply chain on a number of more focused topics. This engagement shall take the following forms:
The FOW CoE has developed an initial core work programme across four workstreams:
Learn more about the work streams here
Core funding for the FOW CoE activity is provided by industry partners. However, this funding is utilised to leverage funding from other sources to maximise the impact of the FOW CoE and the core funding invested.
For the financial year FY20/21 the leverage of an industrial partner’s funding is estimated to be at least 22:1.
The FOW CoE is ultimately governed by an Executive Governance Board on which each industry partner has a single representative. The ORE Catapult also sit on this Board, alongside a representative from our Academic partners.
The FOW CoE recognises there is a range of relevant activity within the broader offshore wind industry and is seeking to augment this through working in collaboration and formal partnerships where this is in the interests of relevant stakeholders. More specifically, it is seeking to ensure that floating offshore wind specific risks and opportunities are considered in the short term, alongside the broader risks and opportunities for the offshore wind industry in the UK and more broadly.
The Scottish Government is delighted to support ORE Catapult’s Floating Wind Centre of Excellence to further develop this technology and drive down costs in the sector. The collaborative programme of work delivered through the Centre will ensure that Scotland remains a world leader in floating offshore wind innovation and move us closer to seeing widespread deployment in more than 462,000 km2 of seas within Scotland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
Paul Wheelhouse
Scottish Government Energy Minister
Ralph is a Programme Manager at ORE Catapult and is responsible for the delivery of large, multi-project technology and supply chain development programmes. Ralph first joined ORE Catapult in 2014 where he worked in the business integration team during the merger with the NAREC organisation before going on to lead ORE Catapult’s Engineering Team.
Prior to joining ORE Catapult, Ralph spent seven years working in consultancy as both owners and lenders engineer, providing specialist advice on renewable energy technology, project design and development. Ralph has a broad range of engineering, programmes, operations and business management experience. Over the past five years, Ralph has worked within a number of innovative companies and project entities in an operational and project delivery role. This has provided him with first hand experience of the challenges faced by companies commercialising new technologies and scaling their operations to deliver these. Ralph has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering (M.Eng) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), both from the University of Strathclyde.