The Sparta (System Performance, Availability andReliability Trend Analysis) project, kick-started by £850,000 ($1.4m) from ORE Catapultand the UK Crown Estate, will create a bank for “anonymised” offshore wind farmperformance and maintenance information to help developers spot “operationalimprovements and cost reduction opportunities”.

The database, supported by developers Centrica, RWE,SSE, Statkraft and Statoil, will initially cover UK wind farms but is designedto be expanded to include international projects.

“Working