Ready to supply and deliver

Government’s offshore windfarm objective welcomed by the UK concrete industry

THE concrete industry has welcomed the vision of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that UK firms should provide more than 50% of the content of future offshore windfarms. The industry, led by MPA The Concrete Centre, has set up a working group to oversee the establishment of a supply chain that delivers cost-efficient solutions for offshore windfarms.

The objective was announced at Monday’s (6 February 2012) meeting of the Offshore Wind Developers’ Forum, co-chaired by DECC Minister Charles Hendry. The announcement reflects recent developments in the UK’s offshore wind supply chain, which includes a number of new manufacturing and port facility developments.

‘We welcome the increased UK content for offshore windfarms and are ready to supply and deliver,’ said Andrew Minson, executive director of MPA The Concrete Centre. ‘The concrete industry is working with offshore windfarm developers, engineers and contractors to demonstrate the viability and cost-efficiencies of concrete solutions.

‘As part of this dialogue we have established a Working Group to secure the UK supply chain and put forward the benefits of concrete gravity foundations for the next generation of larger wind turbines that will operate in deeper offshore locations.’

The concrete industry points out that it has the capacity to deliver. ‘All the constituent parts for concrete foundations can be locally sourced from within the UK,’ said Mr Minson. ‘There is no volume issue with aggregate requirements and the predicted maximum peak demand for cement for offshore foundations would only equate to 4% of UK capacity.

‘The concrete sector is fully ready and able to play its part in the delivery UK solutions for offshore windfarms.’