The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) has launched a new funding programme to unlock manufacturing growth in the UK wind sector.
The new fund, called the Manufacturing Facility Support Programme (MFSP), has £2 million of available finance for UK businesses looking to develop new manufacturing facilities or expand existing facilities that make key components and equipment for the offshore wind sector. Grants are available in amounts of up to £500,000 and will specifically target pre-investment activities that will enable manufacturing projects to unlock larger capital investment from other sources.
Eligible facilities for funding must align with the priority focus areas and UK manufacturing opportunities identified in the Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan from the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC), Renewable UK, and the Crown Estates of the UK and Scotland.
These include turbine blade manufacturing, deeper water foundations, and operations and maintenance vessels.
Iain Sinclair, executive director at Global Energy Group and non-executive director for OWGP, said: “This new programme will provide highly-focused support to innovative UK-based manufacturing companies with the necessary resources to develop new or additional production capacity geared towards providing locally-produced equipment and systems. Developing these resources is key to helping accelerate the deployment of offshore wind in the UK, helping us to reach our ambitious target of 60GW by 2030.
“The MFSP programme further advances our mission to improve productivity, increase business competitiveness, boost innovation, and support a globally competitive offshore wind supply chain in the UK.”
Clean industry ‘vital’ to UK growth
Green industry and manufacturing, across all renewable energy technologies, have been identified as being key to the success of the UK’s net zero targets as well as the nation’s economic future.
A report from sustainable business organisation Aldersgate Group notes that the UK is falling significantly behind other countries with better investment incentives for green tech development—most notably, the US and its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—and warns that without more investment in the green industry, the UK risks billions of pounds of future economic losses.
Offshore wind farms, in particular, provide a huge economic boost to the UK, with each large offshore wind farm adding £2 – £3 billion to the economy. This partly fuelled the creation of the aforementioned Industrial Growth Plan, which RenewableUK chief exec Dan McGrail described as “chart[ing] a clear course for us to ensure that we seize that massive economic opportunity and maximise our opportunities to manufacture those towers here, along with more blades, cables, foundations and a whole range of other products.”
