SeaEnergy PLC (AIM: SEA)said it has secured a grant of £30,000 under the Scottish Enterprise Innovation Support Scheme to help fund the completion of a feasibility study into the service opportunities available in the expanding offshore renewables industry. The grant is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Using its extensive experience in the oil and gas industry and the specific lessons learned by the SeaEnergy Renewables team when constructing the Beatrice Demonstrator offshore wind turbines, SeaEnergy has conducted a preliminary review of service opportunities in the nascent offshore renewables industry. This review has highlighted a number of opportunities and a detailed feasibility study and business plan for the best of those is being completed.
Chairman Steve Remp said: "During the company's time in the oil & gas industry we benefitted from having a profitable, cash generative service business to complement our higher risk, value creating E & P activities. We would like to be in that position again. I believe there is a significant opportunity for us to establish a renewables service business to support both the existing 1GW of offshore wind farms that are now in operation off the UK Coast and the over 40GW of capacity planned to be built in the coming years."
In January, SeaEnergy confirmed that its joint venture with Portugal’s EDP Renovaveis S.A. (EDPR) was awarded acreage by The Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms in the Moray Firth, Scotland, with an approximate installed capacity of 1.3 GigaWatt as part of the UK Round 3 awards, enough to power 730,000 homes.
Under the terms of the agreement, signed by EDPR, SeaEnergy’s 80%-held unit SeaEnergy Renewables Ltd and The Crown Estate, the companies have been awarded the exclusive rights to develop wind farm sites within the Zone 1 of the latest round.
The company was also awarded two development sites in the Scottish Round, with partners Scottish & Southern Energy (LSE: SSE) and RWE’s (XETRA: RWE) Npower unit, with a capacity of 1.8 GW.
SeaEnergy came into existence when Ramco Energy PLC changed its name in September 2009 after selling its oil and gas operations to focus solely on its offshore wind energy activities. The company secured £7.5 million new funding from UK investment group Lanstead Capital LP which became the largest shareholder in the new entity.
Chairman Remp said in September: “The offshore wind opportunity is truly enormous, with over £130 billion of investment envisaged over the next 11 years through the Scottish and UK Offshore Rounds.”