The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and GE Vernova’s Offshore Wind business have signed a GBP 4 million (approximately EUR 4.6 million) agreement on a new research collaboration that will focus on enhancing turbine performance and improved operations and maintenance through smart technological solutions.

Photo courtesy of ORE Catapult; A nacelle from GE Vernova’s Haliade-X 12 MW offshore wind turbine at ORE Catapult’s testing facility in Blyth.

The agreement, which follows GE and ORE Catapult’s ‘Stay Ashore’ programme, will now see the two parties embarking on a multi-year collaboration to create a dedicated research programme to help drive down the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for the global offshore wind market.

Within the previous programme, UK businesses were collaborating and developing products and services aimed at extending the life of offshore wind components, with the programme delivering solutions for wind turbine digital twins and using data analytics to inform turbine operations and maintenance.

“The real-time data from over 70 operational wind turbines, together with virtual physics-based models for the turbine, were used to generate a cloud based digital twin, covering models for a multitude of wind turbine components and systems”, ORE Catapult says.

“From robotic crawlers and new drone and sensor technologies, to cutting edge digital analysis tools, the Stay Ashore programme supported UK SMEs in the development of further new products and services which have subsequently leveraged nearly £2m in funding and/or investment”.

GE and ORE Catapult say that, with the new agreement, they will now focus on some of the biggest challenges facing the industry in the future large-scale deployment of offshore wind and use applied research to enable the development of key innovations.

“This new collaboration is a hugely exciting development for the sector and will allow us to build on the fantastic work we have already seen come through the previous research programme carried out with our colleagues at GE Vernova”, said Andrew Jamieson, Chief Executive of the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.

“By combining knowledge and research capabilities in this way, we can help innovative UK companies to develop some of the cutting-edge technological solutions that can help them support the continued growth of the UK offshore wind sector, while also opening up opportunities to export their skills and services to new global markets”.