Building GW scale fixed and floating wind projects is a massive technical and commercial challenge with once-in-a-generation potential to transform the economies of coastal communities throughout the UK.
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That is particularly the case in the north and northeast of Scotland although greater coordination is required at all levels to grasp the opportunity and address the volume and investment challenges to get to GW scale and quickly drive down costs.
Key to this is learning from successes elsewhere around the world.
Thistle Wind Partners (TWP) is currently developing 2GW of floating and fixed-foundation offshore wind capacity at its two ScotWind leasing sites: the Ayre Offshore Wind Farm in Orkney and the Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Aberdeenshire.
Bowdun is a just over 1GW fixed bottom project. The Ayre project will also contribute more than 1GW of renewable energy – which is enough to power more than 1.2 million households – but is planned to be a floating project.
European projects show the way
© Supplied by Thistle Wind PartnerTWP’s Inverness based supply chain manager, Gavin MacKay, is responsible for developing and implementing supply chain strategies. He points out that creating certainty will drive investor confidence, leading to more sustainable jobs.
This investor confidence is demonstrated by the conditions created in other parts of Europe where two of TWP’s shareholders (Deme Offshore and Qair) are investing in major floating wind specific port infrastructure, as well as achieving exceptionally high levels of local content on the EolMed floating wind demonstration project.
This is learning Gavin is keen to apply here.
He said: “Qair is delivering the EolMed 30MW floating demonstrator which has activated parts of the supply chain previously operating in other sectors such as oil and gas, and construction.
“Some of the automation of production processes are truly impressive and genuinely first in class. There are lessons from that market which read directly across to the imperative in Scotland to develop the right infrastructure and facilitate the transition of oil and gas competencies into the growing demand for these services in offshore wind.”
Certainty will drive investment
© Supplied by Thistlewind PartnersBefore joining TWP, Gavin spent 20 years working in machinery manufacturing and economic development, specialising in energy industry development. He also served as a Board member of Europe’s largest offshore wind cluster organisation, DeepWind, and advised the joint government/industry Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council.
He added: “Creating certainty will drive investor confidence and we will see more successes in UK infrastructure and manufacturing investments which will lead to the quality, sustainable jobs we need to deliver as an industry.
“There is still some way to go to consent, construct, connect and offtake the volumes required to realise the full offshore wind opportunity. It is well understood that grid, planning, and route to market are critical issues that need to be solved.”
Through its local supply chain targets, TWP supports Scotland and the wider UK in developing exportable goods and services for the global offshore wind sector as well as long term opportunities for the local supply chain.
It feels well placed to lever shareholder capabilities and support the growth of the supply chain in Scotland, beginning with a programme to pre-qualify Scottish suppliers with TWP’s tier 1 contractor, DEME Offshore.
The company will have more to say on this in the coming weeks, but it promises to start addressing one of the fundamental barriers for business transitioning into offshore wind.
For more information about TWP, the Ayre and Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm projects and the local supply chain, please visit TWP’s website.
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