The importance of collaboration has been highlighted by Humber offshore wind cluster champion Emma Toulson
As UK lead stakeholder adviser at Orsted she played a key role in the Offshore Wind Sector Deal work and the streams that have emanated from that – with place at the forefront of a focus to ensure lasting benefit.
Grimsby has become the world-leading operations and maintenance hub with Orsted and RWE there and growing, and others likely to follow as new players enter the sector.
Read more: Humber ports expansion profiled as offshore wind demands grow
It is already the control room for 25 per cent of UK installed capacity, with a pathway to 35 per cent in the next 12 months.
Addressing Offshore Wind Connections, Ms Toulson said: “There is lots of opportunity, a huge expansion of offshore wind in the pipeline, and what we are looking at here is how we come together and how we collaborate.
“We have been doing it for longer than a decade, we have built a track record. It started with the tincy-tiny projects and has grown up to mammoth scale projects. From 2009 and Lynn and Inner Dowsing, then it really got motoring from 2010 onwards. We saw infrastructure start to pop up, improvements in infrastructure to handle the new industry coming in.
“2015 to date has seen much larger wind farms coming online, and really positive movement and maturing of an industry in this area, known as the Energy Estuary.”
She reflected on Centrica and E.on’s early ventures, now absorbed by the big two in the sector, Siemens Gamesa’s arrival and the wider supply chain being embedded in the region.
The work with government behind the strategy brought a deep assessment of the locations.
“When we looked around the country, clearly places had quite an interest in offshore wind, either through being close to the projects or already having a knowledge or manufacturing base that was transferring into this sector,” she said. “We saw that evolving, and the Humber was on the map. Clusters are quite a good way of going on. They give you drive, competitiveness, economies of scale, better productivity - you see something greater than the sum of parts, more opportunity for inward investment and employment. You get more out of the industry than if it is in fragmented silos.
“We are an established cluster and if we want to grow and develop further we need to come together around business development and supply chain, employment and skills, innovation, and infrastructure.
“We have had such a good level of participation. It is really growing and we need to make sure we are all on the same page.”
The award-winning former local authority and LEP sector development consultant had followed Renewable UK deputy chief executive Melanie Onn, while Orsted’s UK lead, Duncan Clark, had presented the keynote address. In it he told how export opportunities were now being seen in O&M provision, with US and Taiwan growth strong, while also revealing how 45 UK companies had joined Orsted on the export journey as it builds out around the globe.
“Excellence in operating these farms is highly exportable, and we need to lift our eyes a little bit and ask ourselves how we make the most of that,” he said.
OWC 22 - which saw further unification with organiser Team Humber Marine Alliance and Grimsby Renewables Partnership merging as humber Maritime and Renewables - tapped into a Stateside conference as part of an afternoon segment, with several companies on a trade mission.
Several early members of the region’s offshore wind community are now working abroad, with Mark O’Reilly - former THMA chair and chief executive - also popping up in the video link as senior vice president for offshore wind at Boston Energy Wind Power Services Inc, the US arm of the East Yorkshire company.
Earlier Ben George, general manager of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in the region, highlighted the work to make sure the cluster maintains its leading edge in operations and maintenance.
He spoke about advanced communications with a 5G network link between the farms and ports, data analysis and simulation and clean maritime.
“We see the whole region as the world’s biggest development, demonstration and test site for operational improvements in operations and maintenance,” he said.
