East of England wind body launched at major energy event

The East Wind Offshore Cluster aims to establish the region as the leading area for offshore wind in the UK and maximise the sector’s national and international opportunities.

Andrew Hartson, a director of Associated British Ports who is chair of East Wind said: “The body is seeking to address the scale of the opportunity and the size of the challenge for offshore wind on the East coast.”

The offshore wind sector in the region currently has 5,000 gigawatts of power generation, more than 1000 wind turbines and employs 2,400 people.

The body forecasts £5bn of new capital investment, job numbers in the sector rising to 7,600 by 2030 with 9.7 gigawatts of new projects in development.

Denise Hone of Vattenfall who is vice chair of the body said it would have a “focus on building the strength and opportunities for those in the region’s wind sector.

“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel; we are trying to ensure that we get progression.

“There are other clusters nationally and we were quite late in this region in collaborating to maximise the opportunities off our coast.”

The body already has 124 member companies and other organisations and currently is focusing on three specialist task groups: innovation, skills and communications and outreach.

Dorian Hindmarch, commercial director of Proeon Systems in Norwich who chairs the innovation group, said that innovation and collaboration are key in realising and maximising the potential of the sector in the region.

Andrew Tucker, business development and strategy direct of management consultancy N-energise, said that 50% of offshore wind generation was off the East coast.

He said: “There are other regions in the country which are competing in this sector and this group is key to ensuring that we are ahead of all the others.” A new identity, logo and website www.ewoc.co.uk was launched at the event.