The UK's renewable energy sector has been given more good news with the revelation that £10 million in grants are to be allocated to offshore wind power generation.
Chris Huhne, secretary of state for energy and climate change, announced the funding on July 5th, the first round of grants due to be awarded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
A total of eight companies receive funds, with the largest grant accounting for half of the entire sum to be spent, allowing a range of different aspects of the renewable energy generation and distribution challenge to be tackled.
One of the larger amounts allocated, £2 million, is to be spent on array cables and high-voltage export of
electricity produced from multi-megawatt turbines, the next generation of the iconic windmills that generate the UK's wind power.
The turbines themselves are the subject of some of the funded research, into the use of split bearing technology and modular blades.
DC conversion - which allows high voltages to be transmitted to the mainland from offshore wind farms - is to receive £1 million to develop the technology to carry out the process on a large scale.
A 6 MW generator, mass manufacturing techniques needed to create the foundations for offshore wind turbines and the design of support vessels for offshore wind farms all also receive funding.
Mr Huhne says: "Offshore wind will be very significant in the energy mix as we move to low-carbon, sustainable energy supplies.
"The UK has a wealth of natural resource and coastlines for offshore wind. We are already world leaders in building offshore wind but we must do much, much more."
He adds that supporting companies in the wind energy supply chain within the UK is particularly important during tough economic times, with grants helping them to serve the emerging wind generation market.
