Press Releases
Offshore Wind Farm Supply Chain Opportunities for Local Businesses April 2012
Marine South East is to run a series of events between April and June to inform local businesses of the opportunities that exist to supply products and services to Offshore Wind Farms being developed off the South Coast. The first of these events is scheduled for Thursday 12th April 2012 at Northbrook College, Shoreham Airport, with additional identical events taking place on Thursday 19th April in Newhaven and Thursday 26th April in Chichester.
The events will inform local businesses of the opportunities that exist and will help potential suppliers to identify where their products and services fit in to the supply chain. Presentations will be made by an Offshore Wind Farm Developer and a procurement specialist.
Participants at these initial events will be invited to attend a series of full day workshops, later this year, to help ensure that they qualify to take part in the tendering process.
Once the excitement of announcing a major investment in the form of an Offshore Wind Farm has died down the question that has to be asked is "Will this create jobs in the local area and what will it do for the local economy?" In an attempt to answer these questions Marine South East has been working to identify the opportunities for businesses based in the South East as a result of the wind farms which will be constructed off the South Coast.
Initially the research focused on the structure of the supply chain and identified the products and services used in both the construction and the operations/maintenance of a typical wind farm both onshore and offshore. This work revealed that more than 650 individual products and services are procured from turbines to portacabins.
The next phase will identify businesses in the South East that have existing or potential capacity to supply these products/services, ensure that they are kept informed about tender opportunities and are qualified to tender once the procurement process begins. This information has been requested by the main developer who supports the principal of using competitive regional businesses.
These events will be free to attend and will take place from 4.30-6.30pm. To reserve a place please book through the Marine South East website:
Shoreham on the 12th April http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/make_booking/?id=2889
Newhaven on the 19th April http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/make_booking/?id=2890
Chichester on the 26th April http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/make_booking/?id=2891
"Meet the Buyer" events will be arranged at a future date for local businesses to present their products and services to Tier 1 contractors.
We would urge anyone who is interested in supplying products or services to the offshore wind farm industry to register to attend one of the events or if unable to attend but wishing to be kept informed about offshore windfarm opportunities to email Richard Barron at offshorewind@marinesoutheast.co.uk
Posted 2012-04-03 09:38:59
WaveSentry Sea-State Forecasting Project Launches Knowledge Network Nov 2011
To maximise the business benefits of ‘WaveSentry’, a project developing an improved system for the measurement, forecasting and portrayal of sea-states, Marine South East has launched ‘WaveSentry KN’. This specialist knowledge network will facilitate the identification and exploitation of spin-out technologies and market opportunities for managing the risks of marine operations in adverse sea states.
The WaveSentry project is developing an improved decision support tool for the many marine operations that are impacted by adverse sea conditions for reasons of both economics and safety. Currently available information is based on atmospheric/ocean models which lack temporal and spatial information. The WaveSentry project aims to exploit new data sources, including novel satellite remote measurements of wave steepness as well as real-time buoy and ship derived data.
Improved sea-state forecasting is of significant value to a wide range of maritime activities including: offshore renewable energy installations; ferry services; search and rescue operations; offshore construction and oil and gas operations.
Organisations from both industry and the knowledge base concerned with the provision or use of sea-state measurements and forecasting are invited to join the WaveSentry Knowledge Network.
To join please follow the link: http://www.groupspaces.com/wavesentrykn/join
For more information please contact Simon Powell on: 02380 111592 or email simon@marinesoutheast.co.uk
WaveSentry Partners
* Seazone (HR Wallingford Ltd) (Lead partner)
* EMU Ltd
* Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
* The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
* Chelsea Technology Group Ltd
* Marine South East Ltd
Sub-contractor
GeoData Institute, University of Southampton
WaveSentry is co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board
Posted 2011-11-29 09:29:11
Coastal Small Wind Systems Guidelines published September 2011
Guidelines to promote the faster and wider deployment of small-scale coastal wind systems have been published by the partners of the WICO, ‘Wind of the Coast’ project; a European part-funded initiative looking into small scale coastal wind projects.
The WICO Guidelines have been produced to provide planners and decision makers with key information and solutions to a number of issues which have been causing barriers to the development of small coastal wind systems.
The guidelines include information on:
* How to influence and modify local planning rules to simplify the procedures for the installation of small wind systems
* How to overcome the barriers to installations
* Technical information on small wind systems
* Information on the economic viability of small wind systems and financial incentive systems
To download the WICO Guidelines as an e-book or pdf please go to
http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/wico/downloads/
Posted 2011-11-29 09:31:28
‘WaveSentry’ Sea-State Forecasting Project Launched July 2011
The ‘WaveSentry’ project consortium has secured co-funding from the Technology Strategy Board to develop a new information and forecasting tool for managing the risks of marine operations in adverse sea states. The project was launched in May at a kick-off meeting hosted by the lead partner, HR Wallingford Ltd.
Many marine operations are dependent on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for reasons of economics and safety. At present, available information is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution.
The WaveSentry project aims to address this problem by exploiting new data sources, including novel satellite remote measurements of wave steepness as well as real-time buoy and ship data.
The project will develop and apply techniques to substantially enhance the integration of diverse data sources, in order to offer adverse sea-state data to multiple end-user markets.
Improved sea-state forecasting is of significant value to a wide range of maritime activities including: offshore renewable energy installations; ferry services; search and rescue operations; offshore construction and oil and gas operations. As the WaveSentry system integrates additional data sources it has the potential to offer global coverage. During the 18 months of the project a demonstration system will operate in the English Channel area.
WaveSentry was conceived and developed through Marine South East's MEREX Knowledge Network. MEREX aims to bring together knowledge base and industry organisations in new collaborations such as WaveSentry. The WaveSentry consortium consists of:
* HR Wallingford Ltd
* EMU Ltd
* Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
* Geodata Institute (University of Southampton)
* The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
* Chelsea Technology Group Ltd
* Marine South East Ltd
In addition to project management and dissemination tasks Marine South East will be engaging with relevant organizations to maximize exploitation of project outputs through 'wider business benefit activities', (WBBA).
To learn more about WaveSentry and how you can participate in the 'WBBA' please contact:
Simon Powell, Project Manager, Marine South East Ltd simon@marinesoutheast.co.uk
To register for the MEREX Knowledge Network please visit http://www.merex.co.uk
