UK Manufacturing Technology for Next Generation Wind Turbines: Composites Phase 2B

Tender description

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has appointed the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) to carry out the work described in Section II.2.4 of this notice. OREC will work in close collaboration with the National Composites Centre (NCC) to deliver the scope of the project. OREC and NCC are members of the UK Catapult Network and are centres of excellence responsible for offshore wind and composite materials respectively. This collaboration is therefore a unique offering of all of the skills and capabilities needed to deliver this project. Lot 1: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has procured work under Phase 2B of the 'UK Manufacturing Technology for Next Generation Wind Turbines'. This is a continuation of Joule Phase 1, which investigated the potential for incorporating radically new composite-based components and lightweight designs in 20MW+ offshore wind turbines and Joule Phase 2, which developed more detailed design concepts for a range of composite components within an offshore wind turbine. Engagement with the industry during Phase 2 has highlighted a number of risks with progressing to openly tendered Phase 3, and this Phase 2B has been designed to address those risks and will further progress the technical design and verification of a composite tower product and establish the basis and strategy for the tower's potential commercial exploitation to best benefit the UK supply chain in the potential Phase 3.