Great expectations
Stephanie Pimlott, Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s business liaison and development officer, explains how the town is applying its years of experience working with offshore oil and gas to the escalating offshore wind sector
It was once said that wherever there is an offshore hydrocarbon related development, there will be an engineer or technician from Great Yarmouth not far away.
The Norfolk town has long been more than a seaside resort. Since the 1960s it has been a key site in the UK’s oil and gas market. Today, 12,000 people within the region are employed by 400 companies working in the energy industry. This remarkable pool of expertise and experience is now turning its attention to the renewables sector and the large-scale Round 3 wind farms off the East Anglian coast.
Some 45 years of servicing the gas industry in the Southern North Sea has seen Great Yarmouth develop a strong, highly skilled supply chain whose products and services are in global demand. Geoscience and surveying, recommissioning, shallow water engineering, mature asset management and normally unmanned installations are among the many areas of expertise that have been developed in Great Yarmouth as the town has adapted to an ever-changing industry.
The town’s initial involvement in renewable energy came in 2004 when the Scroby Sands wind farm, one of the UK’s first commercial offshore wind projects, was commissioned. The £75million Round 1 development, project-managed by Great Yarmouth based company ODE and still operated and maintained locally, now generates enough energy to supply 30,000 homes. ODE were among the first companies to turn experience in the oil and gas industries to wind, a trend that has been adopted by several Great Yarmouth businesses in more recent projects such as Thanet and Greater Gabbard.
The announcement of East Anglia Offshore Wind as the developers of the 7.2GW East Anglia Array highlights the potential for wind energy generation off England’s east coast. Great Yarmouth’s proximity to this and other Round 2 projects already under construction, such as Greater Gabbard and Thanet, has allowed many regional companies to apply their experience of gas extraction under harsh conditions to the offshore wind industry.
In the field of offshore surveying, Gardline Marine Sciences (GMS) has emerged as an important player in the renewables sector over the last nine years. GMS, the world’s largest privately owned survey company, has its headquarters in Great Yarmouth. The company, which specialises in geophysical, hydrographic, environmental, oceanographic and geotechnical surveys, is currently providing surveys for the Round 3 site at Dogger Bank and the Atlantic
Array project.
Another Great Yarmouth company with a tradition in oil and gas, CLS Offshore, recently installed the first of 100 Vestas V90 3MW turbines for the Thanet offshore wind farm near Kent. The company’s movement into the renewables sector has been accompanied by a £250,000 investment to train 50 technicians. This is further proof, if it were needed, that businesses are enthusiastically adapting to the new era of energy.
Seajacks is another example of a company applying its experience in offshore oil and gas to the burgeoning wind industry. One of its two self-propelled jack-up vessels, the Seajacks Leviathan, originally designed to operate in the fossil-fuels sector, is currently installing wind turbines at Greater Gabbard; sister vessel the Kraken will work on the Walney 1 and 2 wind farms in the Irish Sea. Indeed, demand for the ships has been so great that the company intends to add two more vessels, specifically designed to service North Sea wind farm installations, to its fleet.
These case studies offer a taste of the diversity of Great Yarmouth’s involvement in the offshore industry. The willingness of companies to use their pedigree in oil and gas to tackle the challenges of the renewables market suggests the town will be at the forefront of the construction and long-term maintenance of many large-scale wind farms around this country’s coastline.
Hopefully, in the future people will say, “Show me an offshore wind energy project, and I’ll find an engineer or technician from Great Yarmouth not far away.”
www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/business/offshore-energy
A joint venture between Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the East of England Development Agency will oversee the construction of a major speculative commercial scheme at Beacon Park.
A new office campus, Wellington Park, comprising 15 separate units totalling 4,000 square metres will be built alongside Blackfriars Court, four buildings with over 5,600 square metres of floor space for light industrial occupiers. The developments, undertaken by local company Wellington Construction, will add to the business facilities already provided by Beacon Park.
The leader of the Council, Barry Coleman, comments: “This major investment represents the culmination of hard work to meet an emerging demand for smaller new commercial floor space. It is an exciting step forward in development at the Park and will help demonstrate that Great Yarmouth is well-equipped to emerge from the recession more quickly than many areas.”
It is designed to accommodate companies for whom other land and building options in Great Yarmouth may not be suitable, and project managers believe the addition of speculative development will appeal to smaller occupiers. The development represents an investment in excess of £12million and the Council hopes that the first buildings will be available for occupation before the end of 2010.
For information see www.beaconpark.co.uk
A SHORE THING
Gardline has been working in offshore wind since 2001 and so far has completed over 140 projects both in the UK and Europe. Its core business is providing survey data to clients as part of the consent process and also enabling the planning and successful construction of projects.
Gardline offers a wide range of services and is continually adding new options. For example, Alicat Workboats Ltd, a Gardline company, launched its new aluminum catamaran, the ‘Gardian’, at the recent Sea Work Exhibition. The high specification, multi-role vessel is specifically designed for the offshore wind sector. It has already proved successful with four charters in place for the first three vessels.
The major part of Gardline’s work in the offshore wind sector is providing offshore site surveys. The company provides environmental, hydrographic, geophysical, geotechnical and oceanographic surveys. The company has been working in the offshore sector for the last nine years and has recently been particularly successful in winning work on four out of the nine Round 3 zones. This includes the geophysical surveys on the Atlantic Array, Dogger Bank and East Anglian Wind Farm sites, and the provision of geophysical consultancy work on one of the other projects. In addition, one of the first contracts to be awarded to the company was to Gardline Environmental Ltd for the ornithological survey work on the Dogger Bank. Gardline is shortly beginning geotechnical drilling operations in support of offshore wind farm projects, using the vessel Ocean Discovery (currently being re-fitted in Falmouth, and ready for operation in July).
The company also provides access vessels. One of its vessels, the Waterfall, is currently operating on the Thanet site providing crew transfer services, diving support and marine mitigation work.
Gardline has been based in Great Yarmouth since the company was established in 1969 by George Darling. Today, the town is still the centre for the company’s global operation and all its ships are still managed from the head quarters. The company is expanding its operational capability within its existing businesses. For example, the Wildlife Department in Gardline Environmental has recently recruited more bird and marine mammal observers to meet increasing demand for survey work.
For information, see www.gardline.com
UNDER CONTROL WITH SSCS
Seabed Scour Control Systems (SSCS) has 25 years’ experience of providing Frond Scour Protection Systems and related consultancy services to the oil and gas industry. The company aims to achieve the same recognition from the wind farm industry as it has with the oil and gas industry, and will be providing scour protection for wind farm turbine subsea foundations and cables.
SSCS has been working within the wind farm industry for six years. The company recognised at a very early stage that scour protection would be a priority, as the Round 1 and 2 turbines were to be installed in shallow waters at sites that were known to be susceptible to considerable scour. SSCS also understands that the turbines associated with the third round and beyond will be installed in deeper waters, using considerably larger and more complex subsea foundations and cable arrays. The company is aware that the scour protection requirements at these installations will as a result become greater and increasingly critical to ensure stability and integrity.
The SSCS Frond Scour Control Systems have been used by the oil and gas industry globally for 25 years and are a typical example of a technology that can readily be transferred to and used by the offshore wind farm industry.
SSCS selected Great Yarmouth as its base to facilitate the delivery of its Frond Systems to the North Sea oil and gas industry. SSCS will also be working alongside the operating companies and other oil and gas service companies based there. From Great Yarmouth, SSCS can easily deliver its products overseas, where there is increasing demand for its systems.
Being based in Great Yarmouth is now of considerable strategic importance. It means the company can deliver and respond quickly to the scour protection requirements that are expected both during the lifetime of the Round 1 and 2 wind farms and from the outset during the construction of the much larger Round 3 developments.
For information, see www.sscsystems.com
Subocean Group, a market leader in specialist subsea cable installation, has confirmed its commitment to EastPort UK’s new outer harbour by signing a long-term contract that will see the relocation of its workshop and equipment to the Great Yarmouth facility.
John Sinclair, managing director of Subocean, whose offshore wind projects include Robin Rigg, Thanet, and Greater Gabbard, said: “Great Yarmouth is a key region for our company in terms of supporting our operations, including our work on all our marine renewables projects in the UK’s South East. Our base at EastPort UK enables us to establish a spare cable and parts depot from which we can deliver smarter and more cost-effective solutions to our clients.”
Eddie Freeman, CEO of EastPort UK, said the agreement between the two companies confirms that the multi-purpose port offers the right location with the right facilities and has the expertise to play a vital role in the renewable energy sector.
“We are delighted that Subocean has chosen EastPort UK as its base for marine renewables on the south east coast of the UK and we are looking forward to working together to ensure Great Yarmouth and the region benefits from the rapidly expanding offshore wind sector,” he says.
The port, which has been privately owned since May 2007, has seen investment of some £100million to create a new deep water outer harbour facility to complement its existing river port.
For information, see www.suboceangroup.com
EastPort UK’s new deep-water outer harbour at Great Yarmouth became operational in January of this year and is regularly used by vessels working on offshore wind farm developments, including Greater Gabbard, Thanet and Sheringham Shoal.
Construction of the outer harbour began in 2007 when the port was transferred to the private ownership of Great Yarmouth Port Company Limited, a subsidiary of International Port Holdings, a wholly owned company of Global Infrastructure Partners whose portfolio also boasts Gatwick, London City Airport and Biffa.
Designed to complement the existing river facility, the newly constructed outer harbour significantly upsizes the port’s offering by providing significant quay space, ample land and deep water direct from sea access.
With planning permissions in place, EastPort UK is in the unique position of being able to deliver facilities quickly, and the new owners see offshore wind as a natural fit for the multi-purpose port, which has been England’s number one offshore energy support port in the Southern North Sea for 46 years.
Although some might see the opening of a new port in the present economic climate as a risky strategy, EastPort UK Chief Executive Eddie Freeman said the £100million facility reflects the group’s commitment to the port’s long term future. “With Round 2 developments moving into construction, Round 2.5 and Round 3 developers announced, EastPort UK now offers the perfect UK manufacturing and construction base for tier 1 and 2 companies, being the closest deep water facility to the East Anglia Array and the near continent,” he said.
This is a view supported by an independent report by a leading industry consultancy, which concluded EastPort UK is an attractive location to serve the offshore wind industry. As the closest deep water facility to the Continent, EastPort UK arguably has the largest concentration of offshore wind farm developments in the world within 100 miles. The report also confirmed that the port will accommodate the manufacture of towers, steel jacket and concrete gravity based foundations, construction (pre-assembly) and O&M facilities.
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