The UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has opened a third call for companies wanting capital grant funding for offshore wind component and technology development in the UK.

The purpose of the Environmental Transformation Fund (EFT) Offshore Wind Demonstration Third Call, worth £8 million, is to support, stimulate, and encourage the development and demonstration of offshore wind technologies and components to increase efficiencies across the supply chain, reduce the cost of redeploying offshore wind, and enable faster deployment of offshore wind technology, DECC says.

Projects must employ wind technology that is significantly different from that currently available. The call closes on 19 March and any grants awarded under this scheme must be claimed in full by 31 March 2011.

The first two calls were launched in 2009, awarding £18m of grants to:

• Siemens – to develop a new power convertor for their next generation offshore wind turbine;

• Vestas – to design and develop advanced manufacturing processes, testing and certification for a large multi-megawatt offshore wind turbine blade;

• Clipper – to develop their 72 m offshore blade for a 10MW offshore wind turbine and to develop a new gearbox design for use in 10 MW offshore wind turbines;

• Artemis – to develop a new hydraulic transmission system for larger offshore wind turbines;

• Mitsubishi – to develop design and supply chain capability got a new design of an offshore wind turbine;

• Burntisland Fabrications – to develop advanced manufacturing for a jacket foundation and;

• Teeside Alliance Group – to develop advanced manufacturing processes for monopile foundations.

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