By: Rob Norris                                                        

The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) has announced the appointment of a new Co-Chair who will steer the organisation through the next phase of implementing the Offshore Wind Sector Deal with Government.

Thousands of new jobs are being created in offshore wind which is one of the UK's most successful growth industries. The sector is attracting billions in private investment over the course of this decade, as we quadruple our current capacity to meet the Prime Minister's target of 40 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030.

Vattenfall's UK Country Manager Danielle Lane is taking over from Ørsted's  Benj Sykes, who has successfully led the offshore wind sector as Co-Chair of the joint Government and industry body for the past six and a half years. 

The announcement comes on the first day of Wind Week as the onshore and offshore wind industry showcases its achievements. Today OWIC is publishing a Sector Deal Progress Update report on its strides forwards since the agreement was announced in March 2019. Highlights include the industry establishing a £100m Offshore Wind Growth Partnership fund to develop the UK-based offshore wind supply chain, long term planning for how we connect projects to the grid, supporting the development of a hydrogen economy and setting new targets for apprentices and a more diverse workforce.

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said: "With record amounts of offshore wind on the grid, and plans underway to support 60,000 jobs in the industry by 2030, it has never been more crucial for government and industry to work hand in hand.

"That's why I am delighted to welcome Danielle to her new role as Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, and I look forward to working with her."

Ørsted's UK Offshore Head of Market Development, Consenting and External Affairs, Benj Sykes, said: "It's been a great privilege during my time as Co-Chair to work so closely with Government and see first-hand the enormous amount of work that has been done to position the sector as a core part of our clean energy infrastructure.

Through the collaborative approach we developed between industry and government culminating in the Offshore Wind Sector Deal, and the consistent and supportive policies that ensued, we have been able to build and maintain the UK's position as the global leader in this key technology.

"I look forward to contributing to OWIC's ongoing success, chairing the Pathways to Growth group that will work with Government to create a strategic framework that can underpin the sustainable and responsible development of future offshore wind, in pursuit of delivering the UK's net zero obligation.

I'm very glad to be handing over to someone as capable as Danielle, as I know she'll make a huge success of her new role, building on the foundations we've laid and steering the industry to even greater heights in the years ahead".  

The incoming Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council, and UK Country Manager for Vattenfall, Danielle Lane said:

"Offshore wind is already powering the green industrial revolution in the UK, and so much of the momentum behind the industry's expansion over the last decade is down to the tireless work of my predecessor.

"Now we look to the future, and the priorities which will enable us to realise the Prime Minister's goal of offshore wind powering every home in the country by 2030.  

"Firstly, I want us to really focus on building the supply chain and bringing skilled green jobs to new parts of the country. This is crucial if the industry is going to make a meaningful contribution to the levelling up agenda and rebuilding the economy.

"Secondly, we have to further increase diversity within the industry to make it an attractive and accessible career to the widest possible talent pool.

"Thirdly, we need to make sure we the right planning framework is in place: spatially - to ensure we can sensitively accommodate and coordinate the infrastructure for 40GW of capacity with other marine and land users; sectorally - to identify how we unlock economic growth powered by renewable electricity; and timely - to ensure the system processes planning applications as quickly as possible to keep a pipeline of projects moving forward. That's really important to meeting net zero targets and building the supply chain."

Notes:

1.The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) is a senior Government and industry forum established in 2013 to drive the development of the world-leading offshore wind sector in the UK: https://www.owic.org.uk/  

2.The Sector Deal Progress Report is available in RenewableUK Publications.

3. A few examples of some of the initiatives undertaken so far include:

The industry establishing a £100m Offshore Wind Growth Partnership fund to develop the UK-based offshore wind supply chain, helping to raise productivity and improve competitiveness over the next 10 years.

This funding is helping UK companies to seize the opportunities not only in this country, but also in the growing global market, increasing the value of our offshore wind exports fivefold to £2.6bn by 2030. The programme is being delivered by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. The OWGP has already awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding to innovative UK companies involved in advanced manufacturing and developing innovative digital technology.

The OWGP is chaired by Martin Whitmarsh, former CEO of McLaren Racing, who wrote an in-depth review of the UK offshore wind supply chain as part of the Sector Deal. The Supply Chain workstream has published a response to the Whitmarsh Review.

The Investment in Talent Group has been set up to lead work on job creation and skills, ensuring that the right training is in place to attract people from a wide variety of backgrounds into the sector in the years ahead. This includes apprenticeships for school leavers and senior engineering roles for graduates, as well as encouraging people with transferable skills from other sectors such as oil and gas and former military personnel to enter our sector. The industry has announced targets to increase diversity so that women and people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are better represented in our modern workforce.    

OWIC has also brough together a wide-ranging group of experts group to examine innovative technology, the Solving the Integration Challenge Steering Group, chaired by the Offshore Wind Sector Champion, Baroness Brown of Cambridge. The group is considering how to integrate 40GW of offshore wind into the energy system most effectively, for example by using electricity from offshore wind to generate renewable hydrogen which can be used to decarbonise the heat and transport sectors. An ORE Catapult report on this subject was published earlier this year.

Progress has also been made on aviation and radar issues, with the creation of a Joint Offshore Windfarm and Air Defence Mitigation Task Force, bringing together industry, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and The Crown Estate. Government and industry are committed to working together on technical solutions to unblock barriers to offshore wind deployment.

The industry has been engaging with a wide range of stakeholders through its Pathways to Growth programme, including environmental groups and nature conservation bodies, discussing potential solutions to consenting, licensing and regulatory barriers to future offshore wind farm growth.

The OWIC Offshore Transmission Group has set out issues which need to be addressed to achieve grid modernisation with an appropriate balance between environmental, social and economic costs. This is being discussed with key stakeholders including BEIS, Ofgem and National Grid ESO (Electricity System Operator).

The Sector has also established an Offshore Wind Innovation Group with industry, academic and public sector representatives working on maximising the economic benefits for the UK of intellectual property, long-term job creation in domestic and export markets, as well as improving the efficiency of offshore wind farms with reduced lifecycle costs and a lower price of electricity for consumers.

8 Offshore Wind Clusters have been established as centres of offshore wind excellence:  DeepWind (North Scotland), Forth & Tay Offshore, North East England, Humber, East Anglia, Solent, Celtic Sea Cluster, North West and North Wales, where a number of supply chain companies are operating side by side, supported by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and other bodies.  

A fully comprehensive list of the OWIC workstreams and their activities to implement the Offshore Wind Sector Deal is available in the Sector Deal Progress Report.

4. More details of Wind Week are available via #UKWindWeek

Contact:
Luke Clark, Director of Strategic Communications 07875 704 032Luke.Clark@RenewableUK.com
Robert Norris, Head of Communications 07969 229 913 Robert.Norris@RenewableUK.com