The Crown Estate, which holds the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland and enables 13GW of grid-connected offshore wind, has tested whether quantum computers could help plan wind farms. It joined an NQCC SparQ consortium led by Frazer-Nash Consultancy with ORCA Computing to run proof-of-concept studies of quantum optimisation for the renewable sector, from batteries to wind farm siting, contributing knowledge of the UK offshore wind industry while ORCA supplied photonic quantum expertise. The problem studied included choosing where new wind farms should go around the UK coast and what shape they should take.
The Crown Estate is a government body based in London. It is a partner in 1 UK project: From batteries to windfarms: Quantum optimisation solutions for the renewable sector.