A New Partnership in Offshore Wind

The opening of Siemens new £310m offshore wind (OSW) turbine blade factory in Hull is a milestone for the industry. It coincides with increased investment in operations and maintenance activities to service the increasing capacity of OSW farms, especially by the world's largest OSW developer, DONG Energy. This proposal brings together these two major players with world-leading academic researchers in a £7.64m, 5-year programme. Focussing on TRL1-3 it will address the fundamental research problems that will help to reduce the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) from OSW and to support UK supply chain growth. The £3.83m requested from EPSRC unlocks £2.50m investment by the industrial players in lower TRL activity that they would not otherwise fund to this level. A further £1.31m is invested by the academic partners.