Aberdeen Scene
Morag McCorkindale, chief operating officer at Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), explains why the North-east of Scotland’s oil and gas supply chain is one of the key drivers for catapulting Aberdeen into pole position as a world-class renewable energy hub
Aberdeen City and Shire boasts an offshore oil and gas supply chain unrivalled in the eastern Hemisphere and now the sector is working to diversify its expertise into the renewables market. This was clear at The Crown Estate’s debut offshore wind supply chain event which took place in Aberdeen in January. The event was the first in a series being held across the UK to demonstrate the scale of the opportunity represented by the UK offshore wind programme.
Such was the success of the Aberdeen event that it had to be extended to meet demand. This was no surprise locally, given the breadth and depth of capabilities of Aberdeen companies and their interest in capitalising on the burgeoning offshore wind industry.
These companies recognise the need for concerted action and a significant effort to deliver the ambitious Round 3 targets. Therefore, it was encouraging to see representatives of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, The Crown Estate, Scottish Government, and Scottish Enterprise all come together with developers and industry on one platform to address crucial issues of implementation.
Given that the Round 3 announcement is still relatively fresh, the contracting and commissioning mechanisms are not yet clear in any detail. However, the scale of the opportunity was put across very clearly and simply – up to £100 billion over the next decade.
The event structure was based on the “share fair” model developed by the oil and gas industry. It included not only scene-setting presentations on the individual projects but also private one-to-one meetings between supply chain companies and developers.
This approach reflects one of AREG’s key aims – to engage in meaningful collaboration and building as effective a supply chain in renewables as we have in oil and gas. Many oil and gas mechanisms such as recognised codes of practice, sharing of information, and supply chain management are transferable.
Aberdeen City and Shire’s capabilities came under the spotlight at the event and showed how the region is already making things happen by pioneering the way in renewables.
Subocean Group has successfully transferred its oil and gas skills to become one of the UK’s largest market leaders in specialist high performance subsea cable installation and burial solutions.
The Aberdeen-headquartered company, which has an order book of around £150million, recently created a renewable industry milestone by becoming the first company to use a DP vessel equipped with ploughing technology to install cables in the windfarm market.
Managing director John Sinclair told delegates that while there were huge opportunities in offshore wind, the industry must pull together, show commitment and invest heavily in assets, talent, and time.
Another Aberdeen company leading the way is SeaEnergy PLC which, along with EDP Renovaveis, was awarded the right to develop an offshore wind farm in Scotland’s Moray Firth with an approximate installed capacity of 1.3GW as part of the Round Three awards.
Allan MacAskill of SeaEnergy’s subsidiary SeaEnergy Renewables is among AREG’s pathfinders and is already renowned for the lead role he played at Talisman Energy in developing the Beatrice offshore windfarm demonstrator project – the world’s first deepwater windfarm.
The company, along with Scottish and Southern Energy, was also granted two separate exclusivity agreements – the first for the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd with SSE (920MW), and the second for Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm Ltd with npower renewables (905MW).
Formerly Ramco Energy, the company became the UK’s only quoted pure play offshore wind company in September 2009 when it changed its name to SeaEnergy PLC.
Aberdeen City and Shire’s deep-rooted upstream oil and gas expertise puts the region at a considerable advantage to harness the renewables market because it has the infrastructure, transferable skills, research and development and all-important know-how.
Testimony to this was the recent announcement by Technip that it is to establish its headquarters for offshore renewable in Aberdeen - clear recognition of the extensive energy expertise to be found in Aberdeen City and Shire and the unique role we can play in creating an industrial scale offshore renewables industry.
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