The Offshore Wind Industry Council says a major programme of work has just begun to ensure that the UK’s low-carbon energy system makes the best use of the increasingly large proportion of electricity we are generating from renewable sources, including offshore wind. The new research project, Solving the Integration Challenge, is a key part of the landmark Offshore Wind Sector Deal announced by Government and industry in March. The task force began work on Monday in London. It is led by Baroness Brown of Cambridge, the industry’s Offshore Wind Sector Champion, and includes senior representatives from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Scottish Government, the Committee on Climate Change, National Grid, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, the Energy Systems Catapult, Atkins, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and companies including ITM, Good Energy, Shell, Equinor, Vattenfall and Ørsted. This wide-ranging group of experts and business leaders will examine how to the UK can continue to decarbonise by building a reliable modern energy system, managing variability of demand and supply, based on renewable technologies, with offshore wind playing a leading role.
Renewable UK 21st May 2019 read more »
Energy Voice 22nd May 2019 read more »
A union campaign has been launched to save the BiFab construction yards in Fife – which look set to lose out on work for a huge EDF wind farm project. The Methil and Burntisland yards were mothballed last year having been close to financial collapse. It is feared a failure to secure contracts for EDF’s £2bn project off the Fife coast could kill the yards. Now unions are calling for a U-turn on plans for the work to be carried out in Indonesia instead of Scotland. A spokesman for the GMB union said: “EDF doesn’t seem to know or care about the proud industrial history of Fife, forged by energy, from the coal mines to North Sea oil and gas. “Fife is primed to help deliver the next generation of energy in the form of renewables manufacturing through its yards in Burntisland and Methil. “So why is EDF sub-contracting the manufacture of the NnG turbine jackets to a yard half way around the world in Indonesia? That’s a slap in the face for Fife and for Scotland.
BBC 22nd May 2019 read more »
Fears Scots workers will miss out on £2bn windfarm contract risking 1,000 jobs.
Daily Record 22nd May 2019 read more »