Building an Industry

Session A7 | Day 2, Weds 30 June, 11.00-12.15pm

Session Summary
Session examining the development of a UK supply chain and challenges ahead.

• Dougie Sharp, Head of Engineering Consultancy, BAE Systems Surface Ships
• Gordon Innes, Head of Low Carbon Economy Team, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
• David Still CBE, Managing Director, Clipper Windpower Marine Limited
• James Brown, Director of Renewables, Energy & Utility Skills
• Steve Clarke, UK Content Manager, Mainstream Renewable Power

	Chair: Dougie Sharp, Head of Engineering Consultancy, BAE Systems Surface Ships Having worked in the shipbuilding industry with BAE Systems Surface Ships and its predecessor companies for the last 33 years, Dougie has a wealth of experience in the design, manufacturing, delivery and in-service support of naval vessels. A Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the IET, Member of the APM and Council Member of the SMI’s Maritime Security & Safety Group, his background in this long established industry has been built through his personal participation and leadership across the CADMID cycle. Currently based in Scotstoun, Glasgow, Dougie has held senior management positions around the UK and in North America for BAE Systems who have the UK’s largest engineering resource with over 18,000 engineers. As Head of Engineering Consultancy, Dougie is currently tasked with identifying, assessing and developing future opportunities in adjacent (to naval/defence) markets and hence his role in building industrial opportunities to sustain high value UK sovereign engineering, operations and maintenance, supply chain and project management capabilities are as appropriate to the Offshore Wind marketplace as they are to others.
	Speaker: Gordon Innes, Head of Low Carbon Economy Team, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Developing a UK Supply Chain and Building an Industry Offshore wind represents a huge new market. In his presentation, Gordon will talk about the economic opportunities that the sector presents for UK companies, and what the government is doing to ensure that the supply chain has the knowledge and capabilities to take advantage of these. Biography Gordon Innes is Head of the Low Carbon Economy Team, at the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. There he is responsible for ensuring that industry is in a position to capitalise on business opportunities arising during the transition to a low-carbon economy. He is also a qualified lawyer with a background in cross-border deal flow, regulation and policy. From July 2005 to January 2009, Gordon was the Director of Trade and Investment USA for the British Government's economic development organisation, UK Trade & Investment. Based in New York City, Gordon led a team of 120 officers, who helped more than 650 US businesses to invest in the UK economy and some 6000 UK businesses to explore, and succeed in, the US market. In 2009, Gordon was appointed honorary fellow at the Grattan Institute, Australia's newest think-tank. There, he led research and debate on the deployment of Australian renewable energy projects.
	Speaker: David Still, CBE, Managing Director, Clipper Windpower Marine Limited Clipper and the UK Opportunity The Britannia 10 MW turbine is due for deployment in 2012, and will be commercially available for Round 3 projects installed beyond 2015. Building a supply chain to support one of the world’s largest turbines is not easy. Shipping large components around the world is not ideal. UK companies should be available to assist in supply Clipper with key components. This presentation will provide information on how Clipper has approached the issue and how we believe we have achieved competitive solutions. Biography David Still has worked in the renewables industry since the early 1980's. He has worked as a wind developer, including leading on the UK's first offshore wind farm. He was the Chairman of the British Wind Energy Association for 5 years up to 2002 and was instrumental in the evolution of the UK offshore wind industry. David was the Renewables Advisor at the DTI (now BERR) from 2003-2005. He is a member of the Renewables Advisory Board (RAB) and currently he is the Managing Director of Clipper Windpower Europe Limited. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 New Year Honours List.
	Speaker: James Brown, Director of Renewables, Energy & Utility Skills Meeting the Skills Challenge The Wind industry has been somewhat neglected in the past and it is only in recent years that this has started to change. Energy and Utility Skills worked across a number of sectors to develop an Occupational Map in 2007 which highlighted that skills across renewable technologies was, and would increasingly be, an issue. The agreement of legally binding targets for the reduction of carbon emissions and the drive to ensure security of energy supply have resulted in the expansion of Wind Energy. This will be fundamental to future energy supply. The result has been an increased demand for skilled labour at a time when the traditional Power sector and engineering in general are facing skills challenges which is exacerbated by a diminishing talent pool from schools and universities. The traditional Power Sector is developing collaborative approaches to ensure the skills demands are met. The wind industry has also pulled together as demonstrated by Renewable UK’s Skills Accords and the work of the Skills and Education Strategy Group. The resulting activities, particularly the Renewable Energy Apprenticeship Programme, have demonstrated how collaboration across the industry linked with trusted partnership arrangements can support rapid developments for the sector. The Renewable Energy Apprenticeship Programme has already been identified as best practice by governments and their agencies and provides an excellent model which can be applied across range job roles across the sector. We are only at the start, more needs to be done, employers need to further develop this strategic approach and the challenges facing the sector must be communicated with governments and agencies. There results will help maximise support for the sector and establish high quality educating and training provision Biography Jim Brown is the Head of Renewables at Energy and Utility Skills and is charged with working with industry and governments across the four nations to develop skills interventions to support the renewable energy sector. Jim is also seconded into Scottish Government to develop and deliver their Renewable Energy Skills Framework for Action. Furthermore, he is also working closely with RenewableUK in developing apprenticeships to support the wind industry and with a collaboration of Sector Skills Councils to develop a Renewable Energy Skills Strategy for the UK.
	Speaker: Steve Clarke, UK Content Manager, Mainstream Renewable Power Developing the UK’s first Integrated Wind Energy SuperCluster January 8th 2010 marked a step change in the UK offshore wind energy sector. In many ways it marked the transition from potential to actual. For example, from a potential 25GW offshore wind market to contractual obligations, from a potential supply chain and skills capacity gap, to a real and present need to grow the UK industry, quickly and effectively. To our advantage however, is the fact that we’re on the brink of a technology transition too. Whilst conventional onshore wind technology has developed incrementally in size & output over a long period of time due to ‘onshore constraints’ such as noise & perceived visual impact, different constraints are manifest offshore. Offshore GW’s will be delivered using new turbine, foundation and grid system solutions and using new installation vessels. Effectively, we have the opportunity through economies of scale and through the fact that offshore wind systems don’t need to be ‘the same’ as onshore systems, to innovate and deliver less expensive turbines, foundations, vessels and offshore grid connections solutions, a number of which are at an advanced stage of development and moving toward demonstration. Of equal significance is the fact that few if any of these new systems have a prescribed supply chain, let alone a specific geographic location of manufacture. Whilst the existing onshore technology leaders are at an advantage in terms of existing technical personnel, this same personnel simply does not yet have the offshore experience which exists here in the UK and fundamentally, operation and maintenance models yield dramatically lower Opperational Expenditure values when transfer times are kept to a minimum i.e. delivered locally to the asset. The proposed presentation for which this paper is a synopsis only, will offer a view on why, if we’re to deliver our obligations, the supply chain and skills agenda are inextricably linked and where the short to medium term focus needs to turn, in geographic and physical terms, to build the UK’s first Offshore Wind SuperCluster: “a geographic region based around a relevant and credible Port location, which incorporates most if not all of the offshore wind energy value chain including consultancy, supply chain manufacture & assembly of products, provision of services which support the sector (including the wider low carbon energy sector); academic links to support the research, development and deployment of tomorrow’s turbines, foundations and interconnection technologies and the training and skills provision needed to deliver the growth in human capital which underpins every part of the sector value chain.” A successful SuperCluster will not only underpin our delivery of the UK offshore wind market but will also be capable of growing into a European & ultimately a global Export Hub. If we get it right it will in parallel drive & shape the UK’s low carbon innovation, manufacture and skills agenda for decades to come. If we don’t, our contractual obligations to The Crown Estate are in jeopardy and we certainly won’t capture the regional and national economic benefits that this new industry could provide. Biography With over ten years of direct wind industry experience, including roles at Director and Chairman level within Public and Private Sector organisations, Steve Clarke manages the supply chain and skills strategy for Mainstream’s & SMart Wind’s offshore wind project stakeholders. Steve Clarke joined the energy industry in 1999 as a business development manager for Peter Brotherhood Ltd., the Peterborough-based engineering & manufacturing company, specialising in the design of Steam Turbines, Gas Compressors and Combined Heat & Power Systems. During his time with Peter Brotherhood’s, Steve was responsible for the formation of REpower UK Ltd. the joint venture (“JV”) with Hamburg-based REpower Systems AG, a leading Global wind technology business, and designers & manufacturers of one of the world’s largest offshore wind turbines, the 6MW REpower 6M. As Sales Director for REpower UK, Steve helped to deliver a prolific market entry which saw the company secure UK orders for over sixty 2MW machines in a little over two years, effectively taking the company from a standing start to 3rd place (20%) in terms of UK onshore market share. During the same period, Steve was also invited to become a founder Director and then Chairman of Renewables East, a publically funded renewable energy agency in the East of England for whom Steve subsequently worked on full time basis as Development Director for Offshore Renewables. During this time, Steve lead the development & brand penetration of OrbisEnergy, the Centre of excellence for offshore renewable energy at Lowestoft, as well as supporting numerous regional technology and supply chain companies to develop and grow their own businesses. In March 2009, Steve returned to the private sector to join the team at Mainstream Renewable Power as UK Content Manager, responsible for maximising UK products & services for Mainstream’s offshore consortium projects and to develop & lead their Skills & Training initiatives too. In his first year, Steve brought together both the strategy and the partnership which designed, developed and delivered the UK’s first dedicated wind energy training tower, installed at Narec. The project was hailed at Ministerial level, as an exemplar of Public, Private and Academic collaboration. Steve is also an active and enthusiastic member of Renewable UK’s Skills and Education Strategy Group and has offered evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee on ‘Green Jobs’.