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.”