RWE: Winners of first Innovation Competition announced

ARC Marine Ltd., Verlume Ltd. and ForWind, the Center for Wind Energy Research at the University of Oldenburg, have won RWE’s first international Innovation Competition. RWE initiated the competition in search of "new valuable insights for the sustainable and cost-efficient expansion of offshore wind", the company said in a press statement.

The competition focused on two key areas: ecology and system integration. ARC Marine from England won 'Ecology Innovation' focussing on sustainable cable and scour protection. In the category of 'System Integration', there are two winners: Verlume from Scotland, a company that works on offshore subsea battery systems with integrated intelligent energy management, and ForWind from Germany, which has developed a unique methodology for lidar- and observer-based forecasting of wind power production.

To select the winners RWE did a thorough technical assessment with a jury consisting of leading experts from RWE in all different technical and commercial fields, and discovered the great potential of the innovations. The winners are in close exchange with RWE’s innovation team and will jointly assess opportunities for further developing their solutions towards commercialisation. RWE has already included the winners into its bid for the Dutch offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust West site VI and VII and will evaluate the use for other commercial offshore wind projects.

To read more, visit the RWE website.