Call news

Call results

£18M funding to further the UK offshore wind supply chain

DECC and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) recently awarded additional funding to grow the UK wind market.

Burntisland Fabrications Ltd (BiFab) and Tees Alliance Group Ltd (TAG) were awarded £1.5m each from the Environment Technology Fund (ETF) to fund manufacturing innovation. BiFab aim to set up a manufacturing facility at the Energy Park in Fife Scotland to make parts for offshore turbines, creating an additional 300 jobs in the region. TAG will develop a production facility at their Haverton Hill Facility in Teesside, creating up to 200 jobs.

£15m has been pledged to the blade testing facility at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) and further grants will follow to support the developing industry.

Lord Drayson, Minister for Science & Innovation, said:

"These grants are part of a package of support to ensure the UK - and UK manufacturing in particular - benefit from the innovative market we are creating. The turbines we need have not been designed yet. Our goal is to encourage their design and manufacture on our shores.

The UK is quite simply the place to be for wind energy: we've got the science, the engineering, the support and the weather!"

New Feed-in Tariff

The Consultation on Renewable Electricity Financial Incentives closed on 15 October 2009. The Government Response is set out in relation to the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariffs (FITs). The FIT has been designed to significantly increase the amount of locally generated renewable electricity. Small scale renewable electricity generators will be eligible for payments from the government for the electricity they generate. The summary report highlights how the FIT will be implemented.