The Carbon Trust said that the Scottish government has extended its financial support for the Carbon Trust’s collaborative research, development and demonstration program for offshore wind.
The Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) program will benefit from an additional £1.5 million (US$1.9 million) in funding to help drive new technologies to market and create new industry standards and best practices. The government last year made an initial £1.5 million investment in the OWA program.
Scotland’s Energy Minister, Paul Wheelhouse, said in a statement: “The Carbon Trust have done a fantastic job so far in reducing the costs of offshore wind, as well as encouraging collaboration across the public and private sectors to improve the industry as a whole. The potential benefits of offshore wind energy in Scotland are enormous, which is why the Scottish Government is committed to its development. By continuing to invest in it, not only are we stimulating economic change for the better, but we’re also helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland and helping to fight the impacts of climate change.”
The OWA program’s collaborators include DONG Energy, EnBW, E.ON, Iberdrola, innogy, SSE, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall.