Biral's thunderstorm and lightening detection system

ORE Catapult announces 600th SME milestone.

ORE Catapult announced that it has provided its 600th SME - Bristol Industrial & Research Associates Ltd (Biral) - with business support. Biral have been working closely with ORE Catapult to further develop and test its BTD-350 thunderstorm and lightening detection system for offshore windfarms. This is a huge milestone for ORE Catapult as it continues to demonstrate its impact in the growth of the UK's offshore renewable supply chain.

The announcement comes as ORE Catapult publishes its 2018/2019 Annual Report which highlights some key successes from the last year. Other milestones include a pioneering £9m industrial partnership to test and develop next-generation wind technologies, an industry-leading programme of robotics projects and expanding its global presence by establishing a £2m research centre in Yantai City, China.

ORE Catapult's Re-Energise Podcast

ORE Catapult's first ever podcast series Re-Energise is launched.

The Re-Energise podcast is the place to discover more about emerging technology innovation in offshore renewables and the way that we will harness low carbon energy sources to meet our future energy needs.

The opening episode kicks off with CEOs from Renewable Parts, Span Access Solutions and JBA Consulting discussing how their business operates in the fast-growing offshore wind industry. They share their stories of breaking into the market, pitching ideas to wind industry giants, tackling innovation inertia and outline the newest opportunities for forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

The podcast series covers a range of discussion topics from exploring tidal energy technology to the rise in robotics and AI systems in offshore renewables to offshore wind's digital transformation. To find out more, visit our website.

Vattenfall European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, Aberdeen.

Offshore wind dominates the third Contracts for Difference auction. 

The results from the CfD3 auction have revealed that the cost of supporting offshore wind has dropped to a record low of £39.65 per MWh, making this the cheapest energy source in the UK. It is estimated that the CfD announcement will support almost 5.8GW of renewable energy, supply over 7,000 jobs, reduce CO2 emissions by 12.5m tonnes compared to using fossil fuels and bring up to £12.8bn of investment to the UK.

The record low price is a reduction of 66% since the first CfD announcement back in 2015, highlighting the innovation and investment that has gone into the offshore wind industry to drive down costs and advance the UK supply chain. This announcement puts the UK in an excellent position to reach its 2030 Sector Deal targets and achieve Net Zero by 2050.  

ORE Catapult's Grid Emulation System, Blyth

ORE Catapult launches fully-funded course to aid innovation and growth in National Grid Connections.

ORE Catapult introduces the course as part of its free support and advice programme - the Grid Connection Support Series. Through partnering with Narec Distributed Energy (DE), ORE Catapult provides SMEs, that offer grid connection products and services in the North-East, with a fully-funded course at the Narec DE Training Centre in Blyth. 

The course will span over a day and a half, covering a variety of topics including energy storage; network issues caused by embedded generation; introduction to UK electrical power distribution system and many more. In addition to the classroom learning, there is also the opportunity to visit the ORE Catapult Grid Emulation System (eGrid).