An ETI Perspective - Lessons learnt from UK offshore renewables innovation

Abstract:

The ETI, alongside representatives from The Crown Estate, the Department for Business, Energy &amp; Industrial Strategy, Innovate UK, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Welsh Government and The Carbon Trust met to review issues that are preventing progress towards the full-scale deployment of offshore renewable energy technologies.<ul><li>Offshore Wind<ul><li>Is a proven technology that is being deployed commercially with a credible path to becoming competitive with the lowest cost low carbon technologies</li><li>The focus for technology development is now on &ndash; improving yields, reducing capital &amp; operational costs and achieving wider deployment</li><li>A stable policy and funding environment into the medium term would accelerate the achievement of energy cost competitiveness</li></ul></li><li>Tidal Stream Energy<ul><li>Is at a much earlier stage in the innovation chain</li><li>Its innovation needs are known and the challenge is one of how to put the component parts together in deployable systems rather than having to reinvent the technology</li><li>MeyGen&rsquo;s Inner Sound project, the world&rsquo;s first tidal stream array is pivotal to advancing the technology and developing supply chain capability</li></ul></li></ul>Innovation grows through learning. There is evidence that offshore wind has learnt from onshore wind and tidal stream energy can take learnings from offshore wind. But it seems that both industries have to have a real focus on cost reduction to make themselves serious contributors to a low carbon transition in the UK.<!-- CO2 -->

Publication Year:

2017

Publisher:

ETI

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5286/ukerc.edc.000581

Author(s):

ETI