The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP), established as part of the Offshore Wind Sector Deal and funded by members of the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) , has awarded twelve UK companies a total of GBP 1.3 million (around € 1.5 million) in funding and business improvement support.
“These twelve companies represent a growing community of supply chain companies from across the UK being supported by OWGP, bringing the total number of companies awarded support to forty-eight. In 2021, we will be further expanding our reach – helping more start-ups to grow, and bigger companies get better,” said Andrew Macdonald , OWGP Programme Director.
Ten companies secured GBP 600,000 (around € 688,000) in grant funding, with GBP 400,000 (around € 459,000) leveraged in matched contributions from the companies themselves. These businesses range from those already active in offshore wind to those diversifying from adjacent sectors such as oil and gas, wave and tidal, and traditional casting and forging.
Apollo, EC-OG, Ledwood, Sheffield Forgemasters and Vrai have projects addressing barriers to diversification and support the expansion of the UK supply chain. Cognitive Business, Leask Marine, MarynSol, Offshore Survival Systems and Sennen Tech applied with projects that will develop innovative solutions and demonstrate improved competitiveness within the supply chain.
These ten awarded companies will start their projects this month.
The remaining two of the total ten companies supported by OWGP are embarking on OWGP’s Sharing in Growth business improvement programme. The companies are Wescott Industrial Services, an O&M solutions provider which hopes to increase its global reach, and Global Energy Group, which recently announced plans to extend their quayside capacity to facilitate the increasing demand from the renewable sector at the Port of Nigg.
The programme will provide each of the two companies with GBP 150,000 (€ 172,000) of grant funding over nine months to support a series of structured improvement activities provided by the Sharing in Growth UK Ltd team.
“We are delighted to receive this support from OWGP’s Sharing in Growth business improvement programme. We are designing a facility that must be able to compete in terms of safety, quality, productivity and cost in the global offshore wind market and this program will provide us access to sector experts who will assist us in being world class from day one” , said Tim Cornelius , Global Energy Group Chief Executive Officer.
“The UK must strive to re-establish itself as a leader in advanced manufacturing or risk missing out on the real economic benefits of the offshore wind boom. The program will help companies like GEG learn from other relevant sectors to accelerate our journey towards optimum productivity, reduced waste and maximum adoption of best practice and cutting edge technologies”.
This month, GEG also announced that it was looking into powering its operations in the Port of Nigg with green hydrogen.