On Monday EEEGR and EastWind were invited to Orsted’s offices in London to participate in workshops which focused on the UK Supply Chain Capability Analysis: Summary Report.
Emma Toulson (Orsted) and Ajai Ahluwalia (Renewable UK/OWIC) provided a detailed update on the report and the key findings and where collectively the sector can continue and maintain its strong presence within the UK market. How do we better compete with the overseas markets and how can we position and lead growth in the domestic markets, through skills, CFD reform, unlocking investment future large scale investment and direct port infrastructure support?
The afternoon focussed on two workshops – the first mapping out the clusters expertise, specialisms and key companies engaged within the sector. This proved to be extremely enlightening and showed not only where the clusters had direct synergies between them but also where they had particular niches, such as large scale fabrication, blade construction/repair. What was of particular interest was the level of development some of the newer clusters such as Celtic Sea Power and Deep Ocean are going to have as offshore wind grows significantly in these areas.
The second workshop had us all thinking about what engagement the clusters could have, with nine key areas identified in the UK Supply Chain Capability Analysis Summary Report:
- Cables
- Substations and electrical design
- Steel fabrication
- Floating wind
- Development services
- Offshore services
- Vessels – both CTV and SOV
- Blades and rotor assembly
- WTG components
These nine highlighted areas have the highest value opportunities that build on the UK’s current strengths – the potential total value of the UK and export markets estimated at £560 billion.
The groups were tasked to understand where the clusters could lead directly on initiatives, where they could support initiatives and where there were other bodies who were better suited to lead on these areas.
Overall, the day was a great experience of knowledge sharing and relationship building and how, as clusters, we should be working collaboratively to promote real opportunities to our cluster members and how the clusters can work better together.
