The Technology Strategy Board has published its new energy strategy for 2012 to 2015 setting out details of its proposed £35m per annum programme, in which offshore renewable energy, including wave and tidal power, plays a key role.

The TSB said its strategy will help to address what it describes as the UK’s ‘trilemma’ of energy security, affordability and sustainability. The strategy for the Board’s work on offshore renewable energy in the upcoming programme includes:

• supporting the deployment of wave and tidal arrays by funding demonstration of technologies that tackle common issues such as tidal array cabling, subsea electrical hubs, installation and maintenance vessels, and anti-fouling

• funding collaborative R&D to help build UK supply chains and enable UK innovation that adds value to those original equipment manufacturers and project developers working on mid round 3 build-out in offshore wind

In August the Board established an Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Centre headquartered in Glasgow, with an operational centre in Northumberland. to facilitate innovation in offshore renewables and provide a central point of access to the UK R&D base, test facilities and other UK assets. The Catapult is anticipated to go live for business early in 2013.

August also saw the publication by the Low Carbon Innovation Co-ordination Group of an in-depth report into marine energy – a Technology Innovation Needs Assessment (TINA), which analysed the potential role of the technology in the UK’s energy system, estimated the value to the UK both from cutting the costs of the technology through innovation and of the green growth opportunity from exports. It also  assessed the case for UK public sector intervention in innovation and identified the potential innovation priorities to deliver the greatest benefit to the UK.

The Group is the coordination vehicle for the UK’s major public sector backed funding and delivery bodies in the area of ‘low carbon innovation’ - core members include the Departments of Energy and Climate Change and of Business, Innovation and Skills, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Technology Strategy Board, and the Carbon Trust.

The Catapult is intended to offer the offshore renewables energy industry access to the UK’s world-leading expertise and test facilities in offshore engineering – where the UK is currently seen as having a significant competitive advantage in marine energy. The Board said the Catapult will accelerate innovations that focus on cost reduction in offshore renewables and ensure that "UK business is able to extract maximum value from the supply chain in this emerging industry."

The strategy paper says the Board also plans to  encourage SMEs in the oil and gas supply chain to consider its cross- sector programmes such as those in offshore renewables, together with its underpinning technology programmes such as materials and sensors, as further opportunities for innovation.

The Board is working with a number of partners, in particular with the LCICG and is planning to look for opportunities to co-fund innovation programmes with the LCICG where appropriate.

As well as receiving funding from the Technology Strategy Board, direct contracts with UK business are intended to form a significant part of the overall funding for the Catapult - one of several set up by the Board. The Board said the centre will also be "well positioned to secure funding from competitive Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D) grants, including EU funding."

Once the catapults are fully established, they are intended to generate their funding broadly equally from three sources:

• Business-funded R&D contracts (i.e. contract research) won competitively
• Collaboratively applied R&D projects funded jointly by the public and private sector, again won competitively
• Core public funding for investment in the capabilities, know how, expertise and skills and long term capital assets of the centre.

The overarching objectives of the TSB;s new energy strategy are to develop affordable and secure sources of energy supply. to integrate future demand and energy supply into a flexible, secure and resilient energy system and to reduce GHG emissions at point of use.

The priority for the programme will be in innovations that can have an impact in the next 10 to 20 years. The Board will also use UK policy and government action as key drivers for a programme that develops UK test beds for demonstration, UK SME supply chains, knowledge transfer and expertise.