GIB and ORE Catapult agree partnership

The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has agreed a three year partnership with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult in a bid to cut the cost of energy generated by offshore renewables.

The memorandum of understanding sets out how the two organisations will seek to lower the levelised cost of energy by encouraging investment into the sector.

They have identified six areas on which they will initially work together in order to address investor concerns about risks in the sector. These are:

• Standardisation of due diligence scopes for equity and debt investment
• Assessment and solutions for technical challenges on offshore structures
• Development of enabling technology standards, such as LiDAR
• Operations and maintenance certification development
• Industry accepted benchmarking/ stage-gating parameters for performance of both marine projects and technologies to enable investment
• Financial modelling best practice for offshore renewables projects

Business minister Anna Soubry said: “This collaboration is a very positive step for our offshore wind industry – helping to increase business productivity, encourage green innovation and stimulate long-term growth.”

GIB chief executive Shaun Kingsbury said: “Our respective organisations support the offshore wind industry’s moves to reduce risks and cut costs. We believe that allying our financial expertise with ORE Catapult’s technical know-how will help achieve that aim.”

ORE Catapult chief executive Andrew Jamieson added: “Joined up thinking between finance and technology is a major enabler of offshore renewable energy deployment.

“ORE Catapult and GIB together will ensure an industry better informed as to what’s investable and markets better able to assess and manage investments through understanding of technology.”