Offshore: UK Crown Estate wants deep water demonstration sites

London, UK- The Crown Estate is asking for responses to an industry questionnaire which will help shape the future of offshore wind test and demonstration (T&D) sites in UK waters.

The UK is the current world leader in terms of installed capacity of offshore wind, and with further projects under construction and coming to the consenting stage, looking ahead to 2020 and beyond the industry is placed to foster innovation and a thriving supply chain, addressing the gap between supply and demand. Drawing on recommendations made by the Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Taskforce in June this year the Crown Estate is seeking opinion about how best to design and lease future offshore T&D facilities.

Development of deep water demonstration sites

A large number of T&D initiatives have been formulated by industry as part of the cost reduction pathways study and these have been collated and characterised with the intention of identifying projects and sites that can produce tangible reductions in direct costs, improve performance or risk profile. The Crown Estate industry questionnaire invites offshore wind and new technology developers to share their understanding of the demand for, and the best ways to secure additional value from existing testing and demonstration sites or operating wind farms, to develop new test and demonstration sites including as part of / extensions to existing project developments, that require minimal or no changes to existing consent conditions and to develop deep water (60m +) demonstration sites.

Maintain the UK's leading position

Commenting on the announcement, Martin Simpson, Head of New Energy and Technology, said: "Our industry engagement will enable us to develop ways of better facilitating the leasing of offshore wind demonstration sites, and in doing so will help us to address the predicted gap between supply and demand. The UK is currently a world leader, but we need to innovate continually, driving improvements in technology, operational processes and contract structures - all of which will help to reduce costs and maintain the UK's position."

Source: IWR Online, 31 Aug 2012