Wind engineering advisers Offshore Wind Consultants (OWC) has appointed Tom Whittle to its newly created role of Asia Pacific regional director.
Mr Whittle was previously OWC’s country manager in Taiwan and has worked as a project director, project manager and package manager on a number of offshore wind projects in the UK, Europe and Asia.
Whittle is also the firm’s floating wind lead and sits on the floating committee of the World Forum Offshore Wind.
© Supplied by Aqualis BraemarOWC said the move follows a period of “substantial regional expansion” in Asia.
In 2018, the London-headquartered company opened its first Asia Pacific office in Taiwan, with subsequent bases being launched in South Korea and Japan.
According to the Global Wind Energy Council, Asia is poised to become a leader in offshore wind, with its share in the global offshore wind market expected to grow from 24 per cent in 2019 to 42 per cent in 2025.
The council expects that the top five markets in the region for new installations over the next decade to be China (52GW), Taiwan (10.5GW), South Korea (7.9GW), Japan (7.4GW) and Vietnam (5.2GW).
Mr Whittle said: “With Asia Pacific countries’ massive energy transition investment plans in both floating and fixed offshore wind, this is a highly exciting region.
“I am glad that OWC continues its strategy of building up presence and competence close to where our clients have their projects and we look forward to reinforcing our presence in the years to come.”
Will Cleverly, managing director of OWC, said: “Tom’s remit is to continue growing our existing teams and establish new offices to support wind developers locally.
“Offshore wind is a rapidly growing industry in the Asia Pacific region, and international and regional developers operating here have welcomed our strategy of providing project development, owners engineering and technical due diligence services on the ground locally, supporting local industry development and value creation.”
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