Vestas, Mitsubishi and Clipper received £5 million LCED grant

The UK and eight other countries had recently signed an agreement to develop an integrated offshore electricity distribution network in the Irish and North Seas to support the transmission of power from offshore turbines. In addition, the UK government had announced a total of £5 million in fresh grants for offshore wind technology studies.

The deal was signed by the UK Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt, at an Energy Council meeting held in Brussels, alongside the ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In related news, Lord Hunt had also revealed the grant recipients of the UK government’s £10 million Low Carbon Energy Demonstration (LCED) fund. Under the scheme, power supplier Mitsubishi Power Systems, wind project developer Clipper Windpower Marine and wind power supplier Vestas Technology have been awarded.

Vestas will get £1.75 million under the UK government’s fund and an extra £1.75 million from the government-funded organization South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). The grant is an added support to the £6 million LCED fund earlier awarded in July to Vestas.

Managing Director Rob Sauven informed that Vestas would be utilizing the grant for the construction of its R&D facility on the Isle of Wight. The facility would be used to build and test large wind turbine blades.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi had been granted £0.81 million from LCED, while Clipper had received £2.5 million. Clipper had obtained the new fund after previously been awarded £4.4 million in September from LCED to develop the world’s largest turbine blades.