Nauti-Craft has recently completed its fifth project with funding assistance from the UK based Carbon Trust under its Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) program.
The OWA is the Carbon Trust’s flagship collaborative RD&D program set up in 2008 with the aim of reducing the cost of offshore wind by 10% through innovation. Technology challenges were identified and prioritised by the OWA members based on the likely savings and the potential for the OWA to influence the outcomes in the offshore wind industry.
The OWA is a joint industry project, involving nine offshore wind developers*
In 2011 Nauti-Craft Pty Ltd was one of 13 finalists chosen from 400 submissions to receive funding assistance because of its unique and novel marine suspension technology which provides safer crew transfer and transit to offshore wind turbines.
Being chosen as a finalist for the competition opened the door for Nauti-Craft to access the support of The Carbon Trust with a succession of projects aimed at assisting in the commercialisation and de-risking of the Nauti-Craft technology.
Support of the Carbon Trust and its Working Group Partners has assisted Nauti-Craft in taking it’s novel marine suspension technology from initial concept stage through to a commercially viable working prototype that has led to commercial agreements aimed at introducing the technology into the European offshore windfarm service vessel fleet.
Milestones have included scale model tests leading to the design, construction and sea trials of 8 metre prototype (including industry demonstrations in Europe at Seaworks 2014) and culminating in the most recently completed project in a Design Approval Preview by DNV GL for a 26 meter windfarm service vessel
Nauti-Craft’s Managing Director Ken Johnsen stated “Without the Carbon Trust’s assistance the Company would not have achieved its rapid progress in arriving at a viable solution for the offshore wind industry. Not only the financial assistance has been valuable. Equally as valuable is the industry exposure facilitated by the Carbon Trust and the Working Group of the OWA.
Nauti-Craft would like to thank the Carbon Trust and its partners and looks forward to a ongoing relationship.
*OWA Partners
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is two-thirds funded by industry and one-third funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Scottish Government. The Carbon Trust’s OWA industrial partners are nine international energy companies:
• DONG Energy, leading Danish offshore wind farm developer with over 20 years’ experience
• E.ON, Germany’s largest utility
• Mainstream Renewable Power, founded by Dr. Eddie O’Connor and Fintan Whelan, the former CEO and CFO of Airtricity
• RWE Innogy, Europe-wide renewables business of the German RWE group
• Scottish Power Renewables, UK’s largest onshore wind farm developer
• SSE Renewables (formerly Airtricity), the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy
• Statkraft, the Norwegian state owned utility
• Statoil, Norwegian international energy company
• Vattenfall, the owner of the second largest fleet of offshore wind farms in the world
