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19 Nov 2018
International
The Basque Energy Cluster organised a mission to Aberdeen on 29 and 30 October to meet the main agents of the wind energy sector in the Scottish North Sea. The mission consisted of a co-organised day together with the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) and a conference on floating wind power organised by Renewable UK. It brought together more than 80 companies from northern Europe among which individual meetings and possible collaborations to combat the imminent challenges of the sector occurred.
The existing wind resource in the North Sea, more specifically in front of the Scottish coasts, is no different from that of the areas that are further south, where large wind farms are being installed as you read this. Given the resource and key entities that are installed in places like Aberdeen, a city known for its value chain in the Oil & Gas sector, it was a matter of time before the area diversified its activities towards the offshore wind sector.
Due to the characteristics of the Scottish coast, one of the best options to install wind farms in some areas is to opt for floating wind power. That is when the opportunity arises for many Basque companies, with years of experience in the wind sector and that have skills in the offshore wind sector, including floating. Specifically, the first floating wind power project in Scotland (Hywind), which was developed by Equinor (formerly Statoil), has up to three Basque manufacturers of key elements for floating wind turbines.
Most Basque companies with capabilities to get into the offshore wind market were at the organised day in Aberdeen. DITREL, the EVE, ERREKA, EUSKALFORGING, IDOM, NAUTILUS, NAVACEL, SAITEC, TECNALIA y ZUNIBALwere the entities present at the two-day mission that the Basque Energy Cluster organised with AREG. The mission consisted of two focuses. The first day involved visiting the installations of EOWDC and KINCARDINE and the MAERSK training centre, and continued with an event to promote collaboration of Scottish and Basque companies, where more than 30 individual meetings were organised among the 50 Basque and Scottish entities attending the event. Among the most relevant companies participating in the event were Equinor, Vattenfall, Global Energy Group or Xodus Group. On the second day everyone attended the Floating Offshore Wind Conference organised by UK Renewables, where key companies in the sector (Innogy, Aker Solutions, Atkins, EDP or Shell) and entities in the region (Scottish Renewables, Crown Estate Scotland or Marine Scotland) presented the upcoming challenges of floating wind power in Scotland and future tenders and projects to be carried out at sea.
In total, more than 80 companies from the sector with which they had direct contact and numerous collaboration opportunities were identified for Basque companies, since, thanks to the contacts made in this mission, their participation in future projects in the floating offshore wind power sector is closer. Floating wind power is already a reality, and Basque companies are going to be there.
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Cluster Activities
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