Photo credits: Tecnalia
By Paula Bastos, WavEC Offshore Renewables
As part of the TWIND project and in the framework of a Staff Exchange in Roadmapping and Strategy Development for Offshore Wind, I visited our partners from Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult from 11th to 13th October in Glasgow. I was very well hosted by the strategy team (Kacper Stefaniak and Cameron Wilson), where we had the opportunity to have an introductory meeting on the overview of the UK and Portuguese offshore wind market, covering the current and future development pathways presented by each part.
During this exchange, we have been through a detailed presentation by ORE Catapult on the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub (OWIH) roadmaps to provide a more comprehensive overview of innovation priorities, supply chain requirements, stakeholder engagement and the potential opportunities available, as well as a detailed presentation of the entire roadmapping process from initial set up to final publication. Furthermore, the ORE Catapult team encouraged debates about OWIH processes, criteria, requirements, and the proposal of new ideas and improvements to be implemented in their tool.
The methodology, built in collaboration with industry and academia, has been developed to identify and prioritise the innovation needs of the offshore wind sector, identifying the key challenges. It was very interesting to explore the tool and its development structure, as it allowed finding synergies between both markets and identifying potential opportunities to apply the methodology in the Portuguese context. We had the opportunity to discuss how a similar roadmap could be established for Portugal and the relevant contents, taking into consideration all local aspects and requirements, and the markets’ development levels. We have initiated a “six-handed” draft of what could become a roadmap for Portugal, which allowed us to raise several valuable questions and discussions. The team was very willing to share their time and knowledge and provide a productive exchange.
Participating in this Staff Exchange was very insightful and valuable as it allowed me to be in contact with a technically very experient institution, which has been developing excellent research work in a highly mature market, and to have the opportunity to interact with a very capable team and expand my knowledge in a collaborative way. The outcomes from this experience will certainly be useful to further applications at WavEC.