The Technology Strategy Board, a business-led executive non-departmental public body established by the UK government, is inviting businesses to compete for up to £12 million of investment during 2010 to help develop wave and tidal technologies.
Two new collaborative R&D competitions have been designed to support innovation that will lead to the cost effective exploitation of UK and global wave and tidal stream resources. Both competitions are complementary to the Carbon Trust’s Marine Renewable Proving Fund (MRPF).
The first £9 million call includes an investment of up to £2 million from the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), which is also developing the Wave Hub project off the coast of Cornwall. The competition opens in March and focuses on driving down the cost of energy and improving the reliability of wave and tidal stream energy devices.
This competition for collaborative proposals consists of two strands: to enhance the performance of existing devices and to progress novel concept devices.
Collaborations must be business-led and involve science-to-business or business-to-business interactions.
The competition is open to wave and tidal stream device manufacturers, and also to collaborations that will develop the UK supply chain and the skills needed to deploy these technologies. This single-stage competition opens on 8 March 2010 and applicants must register their intent to submit an application by 22 April 2010.
The second competition is designed to complement a second £3 million call due to open in September.
This competition is targeting pre-commercial full-scale devices installed and operating in the sea, including those supported by MRPF.
The scope includes verifying performance; improving reliability in a real environment; and developing installation, operation and maintenance methodologies. The competition is open to wave and tidal stream device manufacturers, and also to collaborations that will develop the UK supply chain and the skills needed to deploy these technologies.
This single-stage competition opens on 13 September 2010. The deadline for receipt of application for this competition is 21 October.
The competitions will complement the RDA’s Wave Hub project that is creating a grid-connected ‘socket’ on the seabed some 10 miles off the coast of Cornwall to which arrays of wave energy conversion devices can be connected and tested on a scale not seen before. Work is already underway with the first devices expected to be deployed next year. The RDA is also investing £7.3 million over three years in the Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE).
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