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Offshore Wind Champion appointed as £160mn UK floating offshore wind fund opens for expressions of interest
25/5/2022
News
Government plans to expand offshore wind around the UK to power homes and businesses with cheap, homegrown energy have received a further boost with the appointment of a new government champion and a multimillion-pound manufacturing fund opening for expressions of interest.
Tim Pick, former Head of Energy, Resources and Infrastructure at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the first Offshore Wind Champion to be appointed in the UK. He will spearhead work to accelerate new offshore wind projects around the country, chairing the Offshore Wind Acceleration Taskforce (OWAT).
The Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS) will provide £160mn in government funding to boost floating offshore wind capability around the UK at sites in Scotland, Wales and elsewhere. The government is calling on industry for information on how best to invest the funds.
The emerging UK floating offshore wind sector already has two operational projects generating power off the coast of Scotland at Hywind Scotland and Kincardine. The £160mn of funding will unlock further deepwater port infrastructure and support private investment in new factories to mass produce major components for floating offshore wind, with ambitions for projects off the coast of Wales, says the government.
Some 15 GW of floating offshore wind in Scottish waters has been announced through the ScotWind leasing round and a further 4 GW is to be leased off the Welsh coast in the Celtic Sea which, combined, could require well over 1,000 floating wind foundations. ‘This will present the UK with a huge opportunity to establish a world leading sector capable of bringing down technology costs and delivering floating offshore wind at scale,’ says the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The government announced in its recently announced British Energy Security Strategy its ambition to deliver up to 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030, including up to 5 GW of floating wind, produced by turbines on floating platforms out in deeper seawaters.
