Marine Energy – Supporting Array Technologies is a competition for collaborative R&D funding that will support research, experimental development and demonstration of innovative technologies that solve common issues faced by those developing and deploying the first marine energy arrays.
Administering the funding, the Technology Strategy Board, Scottish Enterprise and the Natural Environment Research Council, will compliment other public funding. Initiatives such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Marine Energy Array Deployment capital grant scheme, the Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) wave and tidal energy system demonstrator programmes and the Scottish Government’s Saltire Prize, also support the first series of wave and tidal arrays.
The competition will seek proposals for R&D projects that address themes such as tidal array cabling, subsea electrical hubs, installation and maintenance vessels for tidal arrays, navigation and collision avoidance, and anti-fouling and corrosion. A briefing event will provide more information to prospective applicants on March 14, with the deadline for registration falling on April 10; expressions of interest must be submitted on April 17.