The jury decided that the WindPowerCluster is not among the winners in the competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
“It’s a shame because we had a good chance to win this competition. Nevertheless, the application process for the cluster partners paid off, because there were numerous networks, which gave new pulses to the offshore industry in the northwest region and strengthened the cluster this way,” says Ronny Meyer Cluster Manager.
The WindPowerCluster is a comprehensive industry network with over 300 companies and institutions in the Northwest region of Germany, which are backing the offshore expansion in the North Sea. In June 2011, the WindPowerCluster was chosen as the only cluster of the Federal States of Bremen and Lower Saxony for the final competition of the BMBF.
„We will continue our research for the energy transition and will not get tired of identifying appropriate funding opportunities,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Reuter, coordinator of advertising and director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology and director of the Institute for Wind Energy Systems Group at the Leibniz University of Hanover.
“The objective of WindPowerCluster is still offshore wind energy at competitive prices,” adds Dr. Stephan Barth, Managing Director of ForWind, the Centre for Wind Energy Research of the University of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen. The further expansion in the offshore industry requires significant efforts in technology development, logistics and training.
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Offshore WIND staff, January 20, 2012; Image: windenergie-agentur