Two of the UK’s leading offshore renewables innovation centres are to merge in a bid to drive forward development and cut costs.
The Glasgow-based Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) and Northumberland’s National Renewable Energy Centre yesterday said the coming together would create a “national champion” focussed on progressing the offshore wind, wave and tidal energy sectors.
A key research theme for the merged group will be to identify ways in which build, construction and maintenance costs can be cut across the industry.
The new organisation will be led by OREC chief executive Andrew Jamieson said: “Narec and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult will together create a world-leading innovation and asset assurance business, serving the entire offshore renewable sector and returning value on government investment many times over.
“We will play a leading role in ensuring the UK replicates the success of the oil and gas industries, creating many thousands of skilled jobs, contributing billions of pounds to the economy and ensuring that the UK has a major influence on European policy, funding and offshore renewable energy development in the decades to come.”
The merger is also being seen as an opportunity to progress commercialisation and deployment of renewable pojects in UK waters and attract inward investment.
OREC’s main advisory group – which is chaired by Perth-based utlity SSE – has significant industry buy-in with members including EDF Energy, EDP Renewables, RWE, Dong Energy and turbine developers Siemens, Areva and Mitsubishi.
The group also has representation from Scotland’s heavy engineering sector including Fife’s BiFab and Global Energy Group and from wave developer Pelamis and tidal group Hammerfest Strom.
Narec last year opened a £48 million test facility on which it is currently testing the nacelle unit of Samsung Heavy Industry’s 7MW turbine, a key element of the world leading machine currently undergoing full commercial testing at SHI’s European wind base at Methil in Fife.
Under the new regime Narec chief executive Andrew Mill will step down from his current position before joining the ORE Catapult board in a non-executive director capacity.
The chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK innovation agency which established OREC, said the merger was a positive for the industry as a whole.
Iain Gray said: “Combining Narec’s outstanding research, testing and development facilities with the Catapult’s leadership and expertise will create a single, powerful champion for the development of the UK’s offshore renewable energy industries.
“The Technology Strategy Board is committed to long term investment to promote technology innovation, drive down the cost of renewable energy and realise the enormous economic potential of the UK’s offshore wind, wave and tidal resources.”