Carbon News

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Project Nova, one of three offshore wind technologies to be researched in this round, aims to assess the feasibility of a wind turbine with giant vertical wings

The Energy Technologies Institute, an energy research consortium with a potential funding pot of £1.1 billion, has today announced the first four projects in which it will be investing.

The projects, which will receive a total amount of £20 million in funding from both the Energy Technology Institute (ETI) itself and the government, focus on offshore wind and tidal power technology.

Fitting in to the ETI's role as a market accelerator, all four projects will take laboratory-tested renewable technologies to a stage where they can be commercially demonstrated.

Dr David Clarke, the ETI's chief executive, said: "The projects being announced today will demonstrate new technologies which can deliver significant cost savings compared to current renewable energy sources."

He added: "Through the skills, capabilities and market access of our members, we have the potential to deploy new technologies on a mass scale. Rapid, widespread deployment is critical if we are to address effectively the challenges of climate change."

Projects

Led by OTM Consulting, E.ON Engineering and Blue H Technologies respectively, Projects Nova, Helm Wind and Deepwater Turbine are all concerned with offshore wind technologies.

Project Nova aims to assess the feasibility of a unique wind turbine with a pair of giant vertical wings, which developers say has the benefit of ruggedness, stability and simple maintenance when compared to conventional horizontal axis turbines.

Meanwhile Project Helm Wind, also UK-based, is looking to deliver a design and feasibility study for a new offshore-specific wind farm that can overcome issues facing today's systems including turbine reliability and equipment maintenance.

And Project Deepwater Turbine, which is to be carried out in partnership with EDF and BAE Systems, aims to design and study an integrated 5MW floating offshore wind turbine for deepwater deployments between 30 and 300 metres.

The fourth project, led by ETI member Rolls Royce and carried out in partnership with Tidal Generation Ltd, will focus on the testing of tidal turbines at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.

Lord Hunt, Minister for Sustainable Development and Energy Innovation, said: "Today's announcement is a key milestone for the Energy Technologies Institute. The UK has pledged to increased dramatically our use of renewable energy to further secure our energy supplies and help fight the damaging effects of climate change.

"In order to meet these challenge we need to turn the best innovative ideas in wind and marine power in to reality. The Energy Technologies Institute is an excellent example of Government working with the private sector to achieve a quantum leap forward in these vital low-carbon technologies," he added.

ETI

Formed in May 2006 in the Chancellor's Budget that year, the Energy Technologies Institute is a consortium of private and public sector that aims to speed up the development of new energy technologies from laboratory stage to commercial deployment.

Funded equally by government and the private sector, the ETI currently consists of six private sector members; E.ON, EDF, Caterpillar, BP, Rolls Royce and Shell; as well as members from the public sector including the Technology Strategy Board and the Department of Innovation and Skills.

Each of its members contributes £5 million a year to the Institute, and funding is matched equally by the government.

If the Institute can attract a total of 11 members, funding would stand at £1.1 billion over ten years.
While offshore wind and marine technologies are the focus of the first round of projects to be funded, the ETI is also addressing the areas of transport, distributed energy, and energy networks. Most recently the organisation has added carbon capture and storage to its areas of interest.

Announcements of further funding for offshore and marine projects are expected in spring this year.