Secretary of state Chris Huhne will announce the grants - worth a total of £10m - in a speech at the launch of the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspective report.
A £5m grant for Siemens Wind Power - applied for under a previous round of funding - will be used to develop a next-generation 6MW offshore turbine with an integrated foundation.
The second largest grant recipient - JDR Cable Systems - will use the £2m it has been awarded as part of an £11m investment package that will see the company develop high-voltage cables for the distribution of power from multi-megawatt turbines. The cables will be manufactured at JDR’s deepwater quayside factory in Hartlepool.
In its Northern European headquarters in Rugby, Warwickshire, Converteam plans to use its £1m grant to build a full-scale test and technology demonstrator of its large-scale DC conversion technology, while Cooper Rolling Bearings of Kings Lynn in Norfolk will use the £256,250 it has been awarded to develop and demonstrate the use of split-bearing technology in large-scale wind applications.
For its part, Isle of Wight-based South Boats Special Projects has been awarded £300,000 to develop offshore wind farm support vessels, while also on the Isle of Wight, Blade Dynamics will use its £400,000 grant to develop and demonstrate the use of modular turbine blade assemblies.
Moving north, the Sheffield-based MTL Group is to develop mass manufacturing techniques for jacket and monopile subassemblies with its grant of £250,000, while Edinburgh-based NGentec plans to develop and demonstrate a new 6MW generator with the £800,000 it has been awarded.
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