On Tuesday 8th February a networking event was held at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton to get members of the offshore wind energy supply chain together to discuss where the industry was heading & what opportunities were available through future developments. Hosted by Envirolink Northwest, presentations were held in the morning by representatives of The Crown Estate, the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Centrica & DONG Energy. The focus during these talks was very much on future projects & taking the industry through Round 3 of leasing agreements to 2020. Even though the risk to developers is still high in taking on these immense projects further out to sea & in deeper water, the rewards appear great, especially when backed up by renewable energy commitments, financial investments & Government incentives.
The afternoon was taken up with workshops focusing on specific areas of offshore wind farm development. Information from those organisations at the vanguard of the offshore wind generation industry was particularly enlightening in identifying potential weaknesses in the supply chain which could negatively impact on future developments & also where innovation was desperately required to bring efficiency savings to the process.
Tenet believes that the engineering design skill set which we employ to the benefit of our clients in the nuclear sector, has the potential to be transferred to other industries. The renewable energy market shows incredible potential for growth over the coming decades as the UK compensates for its reliance on imported energy sources, as well as meeting its commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Tenet are actively pursuing opportunities to diversify & offer our engineering design capability to the renewable energy supply chain.
