GREEN PORT HULL CURRENT R&D PROJECT
To help the industry meet this target, the government designated nine ‘Round 3’ windfarm development zones, chosen because the required facilities would be operational in time for 2020. Three of these zones are within 12 hours’ sailing time from the Humber, essentially making the region responsible for a large proportion of the UK’s progress in renewable energy.
SEAHORSE MARINE
The region’s maritime resurgence is the reason that, in 2010, Seahorse Marine, a manufacturer of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) workboats, left its base in Vancouver, Canada, and returned to its roots in Hull, East Yorkshire. As the renewables industry grows, so does its work in the sector, so it made sense for the company to be based at the heart of the Humber.
Vickie Prince, Business Development Director at Seahorse Marine, explains: “We design and manufacture a number of vessels, including vessels suitable for offshore wind. These include dive boats, both with built-in and portable equipment, to enable diving engineers to assess and maintain wind turbine foundations, and fast response crew transfer boats.
“We also build survey vessels. We’ve recently supplied boats to Dutch company Van Oord, a leading international contractor that specialises in dredging, marine engineering and offshore projects. They are carrying out surveys in the Caspian Sea on behalf of energy giant Chevron, to scope out a new oil terminal in Kazakhstan.
“Our current R&D project is a new vessel design that incorporates the seagoing capabilities of the Seaviper RCB and the functionality of the Optimus workboat. Combined with an intelligent operation control system, it will be a vessel that can be precisely positioned and manoeuvred alongside offshore structures such as wind turbines. The test vessel is scheduled for release at a demonstration event in Hull in May 2016.
“Opportunities in the energy sector, especially offshore wind, are only going to grow thanks to the likes of Centrica, Dong Energy, E.ON, RES Offshore and Siemens establishing operations and maintenance bases in the Humber region. It made sense to move back here and capitalise on our maritime heritage.”
ACCESSING GUIDANCE ON NEW OPPORTUNITIES In an industry that is still relatively new, Seahorse Marine required a little guidance on accessing new opportunities in the offshore wind sector. Its HDPE vessels bring many advantages to renewables businesses due to their flexibility, lightness, cost efficiency and use of recyclable environmentally-friendly materials that do not require anti-fouling, which can contaminate the marine bed. They are also naturally buoyant, with a 0.98 density rating, and can be built quickly (8x3m vessel with a four- crew wheelhouse can be manufactured in 14-16 weeks) without the use of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) moulds.
However, in an industry with stringent procurement processes, Seahorse Marine needed to showcase its products to the right people.
TARGETING SECTOR BUSINESSES Vickie added: “Our products are ideal for the renewables industry, but targeting businesses in this sector is hard. There’s a lot of hype and talk in the media about what investment these large energy companies are making, but little about how local SMEs can contribute or access supply chain opportunities on their own merit, as the large corporates expect SMEs to partner as tier 2 or 3 suppliers.”
CONTINUED...
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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