UK to trial cutting-edge offshore wind turbine demonstrations

Efforts to reduce the high cost of offshore wind farm developments received a major boost today when the Crown Estate, the agency responsible for the British sea bed, announced that it has approved four new demonstration projects designed to test the latest in offshore wind turbine technologies.

Two firms have been awarded leases in England, while a further two projects have been awarded exclusivity agreements in Scotland, and now need to be approved by the Scottish government.

Danish firm Dong Energy was awarded an extension lease to build two next-generation wind turbines at its recently inaugurated 172MW Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary.

Meanwhile, the Blyth-based National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) won a lease to build a 100MW demonstration site containing up to 20 "pods", which developers will rent out to test large-scale turbine prototypes.

Earlier this year, Narec was awarded an £18.5m grant from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to fund the initial site infrastructure. Narec said it is already in discussions with a number of "high-profile" firms which are seeking to rent out a pod at the North Sea site.

"The independent offshore facility will be unique in global R&D terms and is the final piece in the Narec jigsaw; establishing the UK's offshore wind technology testing and demonstration hub in North East England," said Narec chief executive Andrew Mill.

In Scotland, Dutch firm 2-B Energy has secured approval to test two 6MW prototype machines at the Methil offshore wind farm near the Fife Energy Park. The turbines have a jacket foundation pre-fixed to the base, which is expected to significantly reduce the cost of turbine installation.

Finally, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) and Swedish utility Vattenfall won the exclusive right to test and demonstrate up to 11 next-generation offshore wind turbines and other technology in Aberdeen Bay.

Vattenfall and AREG expect to shortly conclude negotiations with the European Commission for a €40m (£33m) grant contribution towards the project.

Crown Estate marine estate director Rob Hastings said that the projects would play a major role in improving the financial viability of offshore wind farms. "Technical innovation is essential to cutting offshore wind costs," he said. " Awarding the four demonstration sites supports the growing UK offshore wind industry's efforts to demonstrate new offshore wind turbines and other technologies in the marine environment."

Peter Madigan, head of offshore renewables at trade association RenewableUK, said that the new sites would also help to attract foreign wind turbine manufacturers to the UK.

"The UK is already a world leader in terms of offshore wind deployed and the amount of projects in the pipeline," he said. "The proposed demonstration sites will position the UK as a centre of research excellence, encouraging manufacturers to base their operations near such research facilities."

The announcement comes almost eight months to the day after the Crown Estate fired the starting gun in the race for nine offshore wind developers to build up to 32GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2020.

The so-called Round 3 projects are expected to make use of emerging offshore wind turbine designs that seek to reduce the cost of deployment by generating greater levels of energy from each turbine and utilising new foundation technologies.

Many of these technologies are now expected to be tested at the new demonstration sites.