UK Carbon Trust Competition Heads into Round 3

The UK’s Carbon Trust has shortlisted seven new design models for offshore wind turbines. In the UK Round 3 of the competition some of the wind farm foundations can be placed up to 100 miles offshore in up to 60m of water. The competition is aimed at revolutionizing the offshore wind industry.

Currently the industry is facing difficult economic challenges. As of now, offshore wind energy generation is too expensive for the amount of energy being produced. However, industry leaders are working hard to control the costs of wind turbines as they move them into deeper waters. The industry is gearing up to help meet the EU goal of 20 percent of energy supplies being garnered from renewables by 2020.

The UK coastline is seeing more and more offshore wind farms coming into being, and the EU targets for renewables will see up to 6,000 wind turbines go into operation to meet renewables goals. The British Wind Energy Association has reported that currently 4GW of UK installed wind energy is gleaned from offshore wind farms.

The UK government’s Round 3 distribution of licensed sites will lead to an additional 100 miles of wind farms off the coast of the British island. In the Thames Estuary another five wind farms are planned or operational which will account for another 2100 MW when fully running.

The Carbon Trust was established by the UK government back in 2001 to aid companies in reducing their carbon emissions. However, back in April the Trust launched a multi-million pound investment scheme to jump-start a nationwide contest which would motivate renewable energy companies to begin aggressively exploring deep water offshore wind turbines.