Renewable energy: a growing sector for the South East marine industry
A South East consortium led by Marine South East has recently won funding to develop the infrastructure to transmit power from marine renewables. The consortium, which also involved South East companies JP Kenny, IT Power and University of Southampton (working through Marinetech South), will develop the proposal further over the next year, having secured nearly £80,000 of funding.
JP Kenny, which has recently been selected as the Subsea Company of the Year by Subsea UK, a trade association representing 150 of the world's leading subsea companies, will now take the project forward starting this month.
Jonathan Williams, Chief Executive of Marine South East explains how this type of consortium work can help develop opportunities in emerging markets: "by bringing these companies together and leading the development of a proposal for funding we have helped these South East companies explore innovation opportunities in one of the fastest growing marine markets. Renewable marine technologies are being used around the globe and these companies are at the forefront of developing the technology capabilities."
"We are always looking for other opportunities to help companies develop innovative solutions such as this and would welcome the opportunity to help companies work in collaboration to gain funding."
The UK has substantial expertise in many fields of marine engineering and related supply chains of products and services. This project will highlight how cross-sector working can allow groups of complementary companies to tap growth markets, both in the UK and globally.
Successful outcomes will help specific companies to participate in a growing marine renewables market, and also provide an exemplar to many other companies. Marine SE is already involved in dialogue with public and private sector organisations regarding supply chain opportunities created by major marine renewable developments, stimulated by London Array and other offshore wind farm investments. This project will help to extend this role into the 'wet' renewables market.
This is an industrial research project which aims to explore feasibility of hydraulic power transmission for marine energy devices, and to create tools for assessing cost-effectiveness of hydraulic power transmission for different application requirements. PATCH will focus specifically on use of seawater hydraulics, for reasons of simplicity and avoidance of environmental hazard.
If you would like to find out more contact Jonathan Williams by emailing jonathan@marinesoutheast.co.uk
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