OCEAN WINDS SEEKS SCOTTISH SUPPLY CHAIN LEAD

Scotwind fixed foundation bid on the West coast of Scotland to create a £300m Gateway for a New Era of Scottish Steel Fabrication

Ocean Winds is one of the world’s leading renewables companies. We first came to Scotland in 2010 to take wind generation from land to sea with 950MW Moray East – Scotland’s largest operational windfarm – whose construction we have now completed.

We have ambitious plans to take offshore wind into deeper waters, further from shore, using both fixed and floating technologies on new sites made available through the Scotwind process. But our ambitions are not limited to expanding offshore wind; we also want to expand the Scottish economy.

In a deliberate decision to benefit the local economy, Moray East was built entirely from the Port of Nigg in the Moray Firth. All of the windfarm components – towers, nacelles, blades and jackets were brought ashore at Nigg to be made ready for installation at sea. (Some windfarms have been built entirely from continental ports where components are made – no part of the windfarm ever making UK landfall!)

In the past it was necessary to import most of the windfarm’s components to Scotland simply because they are not made here.

We believe that must change. The Scottish Government has set an ambition that Scotwind should result in high-skill high-value jobs. To do that, we believe that Scotland needs to make windfarm components. There are a diverse range of high-value opportunities across the supply chain, from sub-sea cable manufacture to steel fabrication.

Tower sections, XXL monopiles, floating foundations; all of these will be required, in Scotland, in the rest of the UK, in Ireland and globally as offshore windfarm deployment accelerates. All require steel fabrication, specifically the rolling, construction and manipulation of large diameter steel section, a capability which will be in high demand, but one which Scotland does not currently have. We believe this can form the foundation of a future Scottish steel fabrication industry and become the cornerstone of a Scottish offshore wind supply chain. With a critical mass of market demand matched to supply chain investment, Scotland can expand this as a supply chain cluster for transition pieces, cable manufacture, and many of the other components necessary for windfarm delivery. Last month we announced that we would make Scotwind Site W1 (located off the coast of Argyll) a Special Case to provide a gateway for the investment needed to establish steel fabrication facilities for offshore wind. In common with most of the recently announced UK R4 offshore wind sites, W1 can be built using XXL monopile foundations. This will provide a new Scottish steel fabrication facility with its first order and its broadest range of market opportunities regardless of whether future CFD auctions favour fixed or floating sites.

With shipbuilding and oil, Scotland has a proud heritage of marine steel fabrication of complex, precise, unique structures. Offshore wind is different. Complexity and precision remain, but we need to produce at scale for windfarms with hundreds of turbines. The temporary scaffolding and mobiles cranes that suited oneoff builds cannot be globally competitive for mass production.

Fabrication facilities need to be up to date, under cover, with good transport and modern handling facilities. To be competitive, deepwater access is vital so components can reach site with minimal cost.

Ocean Winds is a windfarm developer, not a steel fabricator. We work with the world’s leading steel fabricators, but this time, we don’t just want them to supply components, we want them to establish a manufacturing facility. For Scotland to succeed in a world market, we need world leading fabricators to set up in Scotland.

All of this requires significant investment. We want more than a new factory, we want a new industry and we have allocated more than £300m for the purpose.

We need to upgrade our quayside sites with modern factories and handling facilities. We need deep water access so massive components can go from manufacturer to site with minimal cost. We need a competitive local supply chain so that the record low prices achieved by offshore wind can be maintained, at the same time as local content is increased.

We want Scotland to succeed on world markets so we want the best of the world’s fabricators to set up facilities in Scotland.

We need to match market opportunities to fabricators and fabricators to sites.

We are recruiting a Supply Chain Lead with International business, whose key responsibilities will be:

• Identify those businesses with winning potential in the existing Scottish and wider UK supply chain and world wide market place who we would incentivize to locate in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK.

• Develop investment plans for ourselves to invest leveraging further financial and commercial support for these world leading players.

• Identify and develop constructive relations with Government agencies, fellow investors and key industry players to align business aspirations to deliver Nett Zero targets and deliver world leading positive impacts on Climate Change through the Energy Transition. If you have the skills, experience and drive necessary to pilot investment scaled in the hundreds of millions of pounds needed to deliver our supply chain plan, and you share our ambition to build a the offshore wind industry in Scotland, please contact: alice.griggs@oceanwinds.com for an application pack.