Offshore wind currently has 56 GW installed globally (as of 2021) and is proving to be a viable and effective technology to support the decarbonisation of the energy sector as we strive towards net zero targets. To reach targets of 50 GW of offshore wind in the UK by 2030 will require new wind farms to installed. This indicates a significant opportunity for innovative tools that can be utilised in the planning stage of new projects to deliver value.

Kinewell Energy develops and commercialises innovative technologies that add significant scalable value and impact positively on environmental challenges. KLOC is Kinewell's first software solution, and economically designs and optimises offshore wind inter-array cable layouts. In 2016, KLOC was highly commended by the IET innovation awards, and since then has been continuously developed. In 2021, Kinewell secured funding through the North of Tyne Combined Authority's (NTCA) TIGGOR programme, which has driven the business forward, including launching KLOC in the cloud with a web-app user interface. Now, our licensed solution can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, using desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile via an intuitive graphical web-app. KLOC uses Kinewell's unique proprietary algorithms, which has the added benefit of substantially faster calculation times and improved cost models that make less assumptions, are more complex, and therefore a better representation of reality.

During this 6-month Innovate UK project, Kinewell's team of highly skilled professionals will develop a scalable technology that, like KLOC, uses Kinewell's unique proprietary algorithms and applies them to offshore wind turbine placement. This will involve determining the locations to place turbines to minimise cost and maximise energy yield. The optimisation algorithm will search through a set of possible turbine locations within an offshore wind farm area and use a wake model to assess the energy yield of each configuration, to find turbine locations that deliver value. This innovation will lead to a disruptive technology product that aims to deliver value for offshore wind developers and consultants. Furthermore, the unique solution will enable productivity gains for planning engineers and consultants, therefore weakening the constraint of qualified and experienced people needed to deliver net zero.