The tour kicked off in Ramsgate, a small port on the Kent coast, an hour by train from London. Ramsgate is already part of the burgeoning UK offshore wind industry, but hopes to benefit much more as the UK’s offshore wind capacity is ramped up exponentially to 47 GW by 2020. Indeed, the port is home to Vattenfall, which completed the 300-MW Thanet wind farm in 2010, and London Array, a 630-MW wind farm being developed by the DONG, E.on and Masdar consortium and due for completion in 2012.
During a presentation to kick off the press tour, Peter Symons, Director of Business Development from Locate in Kent, a non-profit organisation working to develop business in the county, described Kent as “a leading centre of excellence for offshore operations and maintenance in the UK, simply because we already have the biggest arrays off our shores”.
Simmons explained that major wind turbine manufacturers are currently looking for sites around the UK to site new manufacturing plants to supply the estimated 7,000 additional turbines needed to roll out the 32 GW of additional capacity in Round 3 of the Crown Estate’s offshore wind programme. The question is where will these plants be sited? Symons hopes Kent will be top of their list, although he recognises that competition is fierce; citing Hull, already named by Siemens as a possible location for its UK manufacturing base, as the main competitor.
Critical mass reached
Symons went on to describe how the UK’s offshore wind industry had reached “critical mass” and that what is now needed are new facilities where turbines can be manufactured nearer to demand in the North Sea. “Most companies are looking to open facilities by 2015,” he estimates, and that is where his company, local councils, and the soon to be wound up South East England Development Agency have been focusing their attention. Symons envisages Kent becoming “the new home for offshore wind”, with the creation of a Medway Superhub, named after the main waterway swathing through Kent countryside – the River Medway – and integrating the ports of Ramsgate and Whitstable.
The rewards attached to becoming a hub for offshore wind are significant. It is estimated that 75,000 new jobs could be created in the industry by 2020, with an estimated £100 billion in capital investment required to deliver the wind target needed to contribute to the UK meeting its commitment of generating 30% of its electricity using renewable sources by the end of this decade.
As a result, regions around the UK are vying for the attention of the main turbine manufacturers such as Vestas, Siemens and Gamesa. As mentioned above, back in January, Siemens unveiled plans for an £80 million wind turbine factory at Alexandra Dock in Hull, while Gamesa is considering locating industrial activities in Dundee and an offshore technology base in Glasgow (both in Scotland).
More manufacturing capacity will have to be built to serve the big push to make use of the North Sea’s wind resources, not only by the UK, but also by other North Sea states such as Germany, France and Denmark. The question remains, however, who will be successful in attracting the leading turbine manufacturers, and therefore the plethora of other component manufacturers, operations and maintenance providers and other players in the extensive offshore wind supply chain who will follow closely behind.
The jury is still out, it appears, on whether or not the UK will win the race. As Richard Rigg, Project Director of London Array, points out, there are only a limited number of UK suppliers and contractors in the wind industry. “It’s a real shame UK oil and gas component suppliers, for example, didn’t get in on offshore wind sooner,” he says, adding “in the case of London Array, only about 10% of the contracts we have signed are with UK firms”.
Competition from across the water
Indeed, the London Array itself is a perfect example of the uphill challenge UK Plc. faces in reaping the rich pickings offered by the wind energy development in the North Sea. With two of the consortium’s partners, DONG and E.on, coming from Denmark and Germany – two nations with well-developed wind industries of their own – could domestic politics play a part? It is not insignificant that the top two offshore wind turbine manufacturers, Vestas and Siemens, also come from these two countries. Richard Rigg reveals for example that, given the advanced nature of the London Array project, turbines for what is currently the largest offshore wind farm in the world will be built in Demark by Siemens.
Only time will tell who the winners of Round 3 are in terms of attracting inward investment from offshore wind, but what is clear is that the UK is up for the fight. In October, the government earmarked £60 million to upgrade a number of ports around the country, while places such as Kent are investing in developing the skills needed by the offshore industry through organisations such as the Swale Skills Centre (which has designed a Wind Turbine Technician apprenticeship in conjunction with DONG). Peter Symons also explains that companies such as Locate in Kent are working hard to prepare the ground to help companies find their way more quickly through the notoriously laborious planning process in the UK, and are bringing together public and private entities to identify suitable sites for turbine plants, docks for service vessels, and the like. He certainly believes Locate in Kent’s motto, “Perfect for Europe, Perfect for Business” may well be true for offshore wind.
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