United
Kingdom-based GRAVITAS Offshore Ltd. has secured funding from the Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB)
offshore wind components technologies program to carry out research on design
and construction of concrete gravity foundations for large offshore wind
turbines.
The
company will use the $900,000 grant to demonstrate the benefits of the
foundation technique, and also to develop standards for the solution type.
Concrete gravity foundations using readily deployable UK labor resources and
expertise are expected to play a key part in delivering offshore wind farm
developments. GRAVITAS confirmed the ongoing work is designed to help
demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of this approach against foundation
technologies adopted hitherto for offshore wind systems in the United Kingdom.
The GRAVITAS project also will help to develop reliability standards for concrete
offshore wind foundations.
Energy and climate change minister Greg Barker
says, “This investment from DECC will help GRAVITAS develop and demonstrate the
benefits of its innovative turbine foundation design, cutting costs for
offshore wind, and helping it enter the growing green marketplace.”
