Opportunity dawns

In January, the Crown Estate announced the long awaited successful bidders for each of the nine 'Round 3' offshore wind zones within UK waters. The expansion of electricity generation from offshore wind represents a massive long--term investment that has the potential to generate thousands of jobs in the UK. In total, Round 3 aims to deliver a quarter of the UK's total electricity needs by 2020. The potential for growth in the job market is reckoned to be significant; research by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) estimates that UK wind industry jobs will be in the region of 57,000 by 2020, a significant growth from 5,000 in 2008. Watch the video of the Round 3 launch here Why? Well, to put it in context, the largest of the Round 3 sites, Dogger Bank, which is calculated to offer 9 GW, is six times the worldwide installed base of offshore wind-generating capacity in 2009, a year that saw global wind energy capacity grow 31 per cent as a whole (the market in Europe alone grew 54 per cent). Round 3, which requires £100 billion of capital investment, would see Britain emerge as the largest offshore player by far, well ahead of Germany and Sweden. Image: Inside wind turbines there are lots of metal bits – an opportunity for UK metalcutters? Round 3 undoubtedly represents exceptional and unprecedented levels of ambition, and will require a manufacturing and support services industry comparable in scale to that of North Sea oil and gas. Supply chains that could expand to manufacture these turbines already exist in continental Europe, but this market presents an opportunity for UK engineering firms and suppliers keen to cut their teeth in a new, burgeoning sector. The restricting factor, up to now, has been the dominance of foreign wind turbine manufacturers, such as Vestas (Denmark), Enercon, Siemens, Nordex, RE Power (Germany), Gamesa, Acciona (Spain), GE Energy (US), Suzlon (India) and Goldwind (China). But Round 3 could change all this, or at least lure the foreign contingent to build turbine factories in Britain, particularly as in recent years the cost of offshore wind has been rising, due to a snarled supply chain and the fall in sterling. The worldwide wind market is currently estimated to support annual turbine sales of $60 billion. BWEA says that attracting new investment in offshore wind technology manufacturing to the UK is key to securing thousands of new skilled green-collar jobs. With this in mind, the association says that the government needs to lead on upgrades to UK ports to provide state-of-the-art quayside facilities and create coastal manufacturing hubs for manufacturers. With new turbine assembly plants in UK ports, domestic manufacturers would be able to enter the component supply market for gearboxes, bearings and castings. Whether overseas turbine manufacturers are attracted to Britain remains to be seen, but this doesn't stop UK OEMs taking a lead. A case in point is Mabey Bridge, which announced at the end of January that it is to become the biggest UK wind turbine tower manufacturer, creating 240 jobs. The £38 million investment follows the company's purchase of South Wales' largest speculative industrial unit, along with 18 acres of land, at Newhouse Farm Distribution Park in Chepstow, for £13 million. The firm has now lodged a planning application with Monmouthshire Council to double the size of the existing warehouse to allow the new fabrication facility for the towers to go ahead. "We are forecasting that production at the facility will provide around half the UK's requirement for wind turbine towers, greatly reducing the need for developers to import," says Peter Lloyd, managing director of Mabey Bridge. This 32,140 m2 unit, which has been fully forward-funded by parent company Mabey Holdings, will, when completed, be capable of fabricating turbine towers up to 5 m in diameter and 40 m in length. The factory intends to deploy the latest manufacturing techniques, including CNC profiling and forming, robotic welding and high quality blasting. Mabey Bridge is understood to be working with wind farm developer Nuon Renewables on the project, while the company says it has a "number of relationships" in place with major wind turbine manufacturers, which mean the factory will be running at full capacity "in a relatively short period of time". Another interesting UK development is the announcement (late last year) that Clipper Windpower Marine Ltd has been awarded £4.4 million under the ETF Offshore Wind Demonstration Call, issued by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The funding, intended to stimulate the development and demonstration of offshore wind technologies and components for larger multi-megawatt turbines, will contribute towards costs associated with the development of blades for the 'Britannia' project, Clipper's 10 MW offshore wind turbine. Scheduled for service in late 2011, Britannia is one of the largest turbines under development in the world. "With the deployment of Britannia turbines in UK waters, the nation will benefit from the strong economic boost arising from their development and serial production in coming years," says James Dehlsen, chairman of Clipper Windpower. The Britannia blade development project is anticipated to take place at a new 4,000 m2 facility that Clipper expects to occupy on the River Tyne. Once constructed, each blade will be more than 70 m long and weigh over 30 tonnes. A fully operational Clipper 10 MW turbine will stand at 175 m in height. Clipper says it plans to utilise emerging UK supply chain opportunities in developing the manufacturing process for the new turbine. Remaining in the North of England, the Northern Wind Innovation Programme has announced the names of companies participating in newly formed consortia set to benefit from a share of £3 million, specifically aimed at stimulating innovation and technological developments for the offshore wind industry in the north. A total of 10 consortia, made up of 38 UK companies, were selected against strict technical and economic criteria. Proving that it is possible to get involved, among the successful collaborative partners are: casting machinery specialist Composite Metal Technology of Basingstoke; Huddersfield-based David Brown Gear Systems; bearings expert Roballo Engineering of Peterlee; Nottingham-based transmission and drivetrain specialist Romax Technology ; Cambridge-based welding and joining experts TWI; Monitor Coatings of North Shields; seal specialist James Walker & Co of Crewe; and Glasgow-based NDT expert Applied Inspection. Any other companies looking for opportunities can declare an expression of interest at the following website: www.nwip.org/opportunities.php. With composite materials playing a large role in the manufacture of parts such as blades, nacelle covers, rotor spinners, hub covers, shear webs, root end platforms and internal blade components, there are opportunities for manufacturers with knowledge of these materials.To help maximise such opportunities, wind supply chain expert help is available free of charge through DECC's UK Renewables Service (www.ukrenewables.com). This can assist composites firms to understand the opportunity, receive signposts to sources of further help and plan an approach, if appropriate, including strategic support under a non-disclosure agreement. LUCRATIVE DEALS For metal parts manufacturers, there are plenty of examples of progressive UK engineering firms winning lucrative wind power contracts in the recent past, in many cases spurring investment in new machine tools. RMB Deritend of West Bromwich, for instance, which as the result of a £440,000 contract for the repair and refurbishment of wind turbine gearboxes, acquired an XYZ 1010 vertical machining centre from XYZ Machine Tools (01823 674200). In Sheffield, Cooper & Turner's success in securing a contract to make wind turbine blade-to-hub studs in large volumes led to the purchase of two Kastospeed C9 circular saws from Kasto (01908 571590) for stand-alone use and another linked to a Danish-built Akea lathe with 80 mm diameter capacity. Also in the same city, precision sub-contractor Barker Collins Engineering has just installed five Doosan DB 130C/CX horizontal Boring Machines, supplied by Mills CNC (01926 736736), specifically with the wind energy sector in mind. "It is estimated that, in the next 10 years, 10,000 offshore wind turbines will need to be manufactured and installed in the North Sea and the Baltic to help meet Europe's future energy requirements. This number could rise to 30,000 by 2030," says Chris Carter, managing director at Barker Collins. "Such demand is important to our future growth and development, and we're doing everything we can to ensure that we're well positioned to secure a good percentage of the manufacturing contracts when they come on stream." Barker Collins is already involved in the machining of clevis joints for offshore wind turbines. Manufactured from cast steel, each clevis weighs up to 2.5 tonnes and is machined in a single set-up in around 11 hours. Special machining technology solutions are also being developed. Sandvik Coromant (0121 504 5400), for example, can already offer cutting tool and tooling system packages for wind turbine components, such as connecting rings, main shafts, hubs and planetary carriers. By 2012, the company says that specific solutions will be available for all important wind turbine parts. Download Sandvik Coromant's solutions brochure here Image: Sandvik has published a brochure setting out its wind power solutions According to DECC statistics, output from UK wind turbines increased 38.9 per cent in Q3 2009, in comparison with the same period in 2008. The growth of this sector would appear to represent a huge opportunity for the nation's manufacturers, which, together with inward investors, will drive the creation of some of the green-collar jobs that are increasingly spoken about. Box item 1 Renewables at household level The UK Government has announced its feed-in tariffs for small-scale renewable and low carbon electricity, starting from 1 April. In addition to the renewable energy feed-in tariffs, DECC has also published a blueprint for low carbon heating technologies to be introduced in 2011 – a supposed world first. The feed-in tariff will be available to householders and communities installing low carbon and renewable electricity technology, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines up to 5 MW. Owners will be paid for electricity – even if they consume it themselves – and a further payment will be given for any electricity fed into the grid. A typical 2.5 kW solar PV installation could offer homeowners a reward of up to £900 and save an additional £140 on their electricity bill, while the installation of a ground source heat pump in an average semi-detached house with adequate insulation could be rewarded with £1,000 a year and lead to savings of £200 per year. Box item 2 Events galore February and March have seen a whole host of regional events taking place to involve suppliers in the wind farm bonanza. While some of these will have already taken place, the websites should lead you to more information and contact points: EEDA, Lowestoft, 4 March – www.eventsforce.net/offshore SEEDA, Gatwick, 23 February – www.envirobusiness.co.uk/wind-supply-chain-event.html REGEN SW, Bristol, 9 March – http://regensw.eventhq.co.uk/uk_offshore_wind_ supply_chain_conference Globalscott, Glasgow, 4 February – http://www.globalscot.com/Events/Event_ 04122009141057.aspx Advantage West Midlands, 25 Feb, Loughborough – http://www.advantagewm.co.uk/ news-media-events/events/items/2010/ukoffshorewindsupplychainconference.aspx