New task force to make the most of offshore wind power using innovative technology

The new research project, Solving the Integration Challenge, is a key part of the landmark Offshore Wind Sector Deal announced by Government and industry in March.

The task force began work on Monday in London. It is led by Baroness Brown of Cambridge, the industry’s Offshore Wind Sector Champion, and includes senior representatives from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Scottish Government, the Committee on Climate Change, National Grid, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, the Energy Systems Catapult, Atkins, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and companies including ITM, Good Energy, Shell, Equinor, Vattenfall and Ørsted.

This wide-ranging group of experts and business leaders will examine how to the UK can continue to decarbonise by building a reliable modern energy system, managing variability of demand and supply, based on renewable technologies, with offshore wind playing a leading role.

The group will publish a road map identifying pioneering techniques, such as using electricity from offshore wind to generate and store hydrogen as a power source. It will also examine how to introduce more flexibility into our energy system, for example by expanding battery storage and the use of demand side response (which enables consumers to take advantage of low electricity prices at certain times of day).

Earlier this month the Government’s advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, published a report on cutting greenhouse gas emission to net zero by 2050 which highlighted the key role of wind energy in tackling global warming while also keeping energy bills down for consumers. The report suggested that the UK could increase its offshore wind capacity nearly tenfold by 2050, from 7.9 gigawatts (GW) now to 75GW by 2050.  

Baroness Brown of Cambridge, the Offshore Wind Sector Champion, said: “There is no doubt about the urgent need to be more ambitious in our plans to decarbonise electricity generation. With the transformative Offshore Wind Sector Deal in place, and CCC’s call for more offshore wind, the time is right for the UK to reach out and embrace innovative technologies which will help us to integrate more low-cost power from renewables onto the system. This will benefit consumers and create highly-skilled jobs, as well as leading by example on the global stage in taking practical measures against climate change.  

“I look forward to working with a wide range of experts from other parts of the energy sector, Government, the UK’s world-leading universities and the Offshore Renewable Energy and the Energy Systems Catapults, to strengthen offshore wind’s role in providing reliable solutions for the UK’s energy needs.”