UK & Chinese Offshore Wind Research Center Opens

Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and/or follow us on Google News!

---

A new $2.63 million joint UK-Chinese offshore wind research center was opened on Thursday in Yantai City, with its purpose to act as a leading renewable energy research and development center situated to support the growth of its two respective offshore wind industries.

The new offshore wind research center is a joint project between the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Tus Clean Energy, a Beijing-based clean energy company and subsidiary of high-tech business park giant TusHoldings. The TUS-ORE Catapult Research Centre (TORC) will seek to develop collaborate on research programs between both the UK and Chinese offshore wind industries, support market entry and incubation for UK businesses into China, provide commercial support for Chinese offshore wind developers, and support the demonstration of new technologies on a 300 megawatt (MW) wind farm in the Shandong Province.

“Our new Research Centre, in partnership with TUS, will support UK businesses as they take advantage of a new wave of opportunities to engage with one of the fastest-growing offshore wind markets in the world – and present a fantastic opportunity to develop a supply chain that can compete on a global scale,” said ORE Catapult’s Chief Executive, Andrew Jamieson. “With more than a decade of experience and expertise in this sector, and global exports expected to be worth £2.6 billion a year by 2030 for UK companies, now is the time for innovative companies to act and establish themselves at the heart of the Chinese market.”

“The TUS-ORE Catapult Research Centre is an important project established under ‘The Belt and Road’ initiative,” added Tus Clean Energy’s Senior Vice president, Charlie Du. “China’s ocean economy is increasing by 7.2% per year and the province of Shandong’s abundant resources has been enlisted by the State Council as a ‘comprehensive test area for new and old kinetic energy conversion’.

“Following the development of TORC, I believe the government will provide more favourable policies to UK companies seeking to enter China to create real benefit to both sides, furthering the technological cooperation between China and UK and creating significant opportunities and reliable incubation service for UK companies.”

The launch was conducted to coincide with a week-long trade mission to China for 11 innovative UK companies looking to explore the opportunities being presented by China’s offshore wind market. The Innovate UK Global Business Innovation Programme offshore wind mission.