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European Offshore Wind Developers Join Forces With the Carbon Trust


Wind farm

Nine of the largest offshore wind developers in Europe: DONG Energy; EnBW; E.ON; Iberdrola; RWE; SSE; Statkraft; Statoil and Vattenfall have signed up to the Offshore Wind Accelerator  (OWA) programme of the Carbon Trust. This programme is designed to impact the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) from offshore wind by reducing costs, improving efficiency and availability of existing and future offshore wind farms. Over the next four years the developers will collectively invest at least EUR 7.6 million, boosted by a further EUR 1.8 million from the Scottish Government, to bring new innovations to market that will help to ensure that the typical cost of offshore wind is below EUR 118 per MWh by 2020.

The success of the OWA over the past eight years has been based on an exemplary industry-led RD&D model where the priorities are set by developers to facilitate targeted and efficient commercialisation of new innovations. The projects undertaken by the OWA programme are selected to impact the LCoE by improving performance in offshore wind farm design, construction and operation.

The OWA programme, originally created in 2008, has been a driving force behind a range of new innovations such as; developing and demonstrating new foundations; the development and adoption of 66kV cabling; improving wind resource measurement and modelling, and new innovative access vessels. Over the last eight years the OWA has delivered over 125 projects, ranging from feasibility studies to multimillion-pound, full-scale technology demonstrations. Today, many of the innovations commercialised through the OWA are being deployed by developers building Round 2 and Round 3 wind farm sites, and are delivering direct cost reductions now.

OWA partners including E.ON; RWE; Statoil and Vattenfall were among a group of companies who published an open letter earlier this month, outlining a pledge to cut the cost of offshore wind farms to make them a competitive source of electricity generation. The declaration set out an ambition to reach EUR 80 per MWh by 2025.