Offshore Wind

The UK has an enlightened and forward looking position in the offshore wind power sector: we now lead the world in terms of installed offshore capacity at 600 megawatts and have a demonstrator project with the largest turbine blades in the world in the deepest water yet used for an offshore wind turbine.

 A good deal of the UK’s pre-eminence in this field is due to the transfer of knowledge and technology from the UK's North Sea oil and gas industry. UK-based engineering contractors who developed much of the technology and expertise needed to put oil and gas production infrastructure in place in this challenging environment are now leading the way in doing the same for offshore wind infrastructure and other marine renewables. As with North Sea oil and gas, the UK’s offshore wind expertise is travelling abroad. For example, Harland and Wolff, the Northern Ireland-based marine fabrication yard has now been working in the offshore wind sector for several years. In early 2009 the company was contracted by Weserwind of Germany to assemble and erect a large jacket structure for an offshore transformer platform. Similarly Burntisland Fabrications Ltd (BiFab) are also extremely successful in this market  - BiFab’s latest order is for 30 offshore jacket sub-structures for the Ormonde 150 megawatt wind farm, 10km west of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

Other UK companies with long track records in the offshore energy sector are working together to push the boundaries of offshore wind technology. One example of this is Project Helm Wind - a UK-based consortium led by E.ON Engineering and including representatives from Rolls-Royce, BP and the University of Strathclyde.  The project is being supported by the Energy Technologies Institute and aims to deliver a concept design and feasibility study for a new offshore-specific wind turbine system.

Featured Case Study

Making the most of it

A leader in the design and manufacture of innovative structural composite systems, Solent Composites Systems is applying its experience working with the offshore oil & gas industry to the offshore wind industry
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