Scottish renewables firms have been invited to submit proposals for Statoil’s Hywind floating turbine project, offshore Peterhead.
The call follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Scottish Enterprise and Statoil Technology Invest over the project in June.
The Norwegian oil giant is looking to establish a pilot park of a full-scale floating offshore wind unit east of Peterhead, resembling the Hywind Demo set up in 2009 off the coast of Norway.
In order to make Hywind a commercially viable, Statoil has challenged the Scottish industry to look at more efficient ways of capturing the energy from turbines further offshore at greater water depths and to improve on their assembly and installation.
“Scotland has a fantastic track record in developing new technologies for the oil and gas industry and I have every confidence our companies will rise to Statoil’s challenge in renewables,” said Maggie McGinlay, director of energy and low carbon technologies at Scottish Enterprise.
“Scottish Enterprise has a raft of initiatives designed to support companies in this sector and we will shortly be unveiling a new package of support and funding for those involved in R&D work.”
Applications from Scottish firms interested in participating in the project are open till September 15.
