Cammell Laird windfarm deal could lead to £5bn of work and create 2,000 jobs at River Mersey shipyard
A major £5m wind farm contract could provide the springboard to £5bn-worth of work and an extra 2,000 jobs for Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird.
The yard announced a deal yesterday, with energy company RWE npower renewables, to provide port facilities for its 160-turbine Gwynt y Môr wind farm off the North Wales coast.
It is the yard’s first foray into a sector it recognises as ripe for huge growth over the coming years and capable of supporting thousands of highly skilled jobs.
Cammell Laird was too late to bid for construction work with RWE and will, instead, provide support for the installation operation lasting until 2014.
It has already invested the £5m from RWE into new jetty facilities at Birkenhead, where monopiles – the foundation units sunk into the seabed to support turbines – will be shipped in from Europe for storage before being transferred to special support vessels prior to installation.
But Cammell Laird says the contract will enable it to prove its credentials in an industry estimated to be worth £75bn to the UK by 2020.
Shipyard business development director David Williams said the West coast will command £15bn of that, which could mean £5bn of work for the yard and 2,000 jobs.
Energy company Centrica plans to build a 1,000-turbine windfarm off the Isle of Man, and he said the yard will bid for construction contracts to build 30 huge seaborne substations at £6m each, as well as 1,000 foundation units for turbines, at a cost of £2m each.
Mr Williams said Cammell Laird’s massive construction hall has the capacity to build eight substations at a time.
And he said the business has huge potential: “We have an advantage through location and skills. We know we have more than a fighting chance to deliver.
“There is no-one else on the West coast of the UK who can deliver this.”
Cllr Steve Foulkes, leader of Wirral Council, said the RWE contract vindicated the authority’s long-term support for the shipyard and added that it signals a bright, new future for the company and the town.
“This is a fantastic day and is a complete justification of our stance when people said shipbuilding was dead.”
Standing in the massive construction hall, where sections of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier are currently being built, he said: “This is a state-of-the art facility that we protected through thick and thin. But this is just a foothold in an industry that will be with us for many many years to come.
“We want our share of this market. We have the land mass and the facilities and now the engineering facilities in this construction hall. My message to the world is, ‘Come and have a look at what Cammell Laird has got to offer’. I want to see it back to the heady days of thousands of people employed on this site.”
Lorraine Rogers, chief executive of inward investment agency The Mersey Partnership (TMP), believes Cammell Laird is ideally placed to tap into the wind power sector which TMP predicts will create 3,000 jobs throughout the Liverpool City Region by 2015.
“This is really significant for Cammell Laird, but also for the City Region because of the potential.
“This was identified as an area of growth about two years ago. We are on track if we persist and pursue it. This is testament to Cammell Laird’s skills base. This is the first concrete step. The opportunities are huge.”
RWE project director Toby Edmonds said: “Through Gwynt y Môr, the port of Cammell Laird now has the opportunity to showcase its capability to the offshore industry and take advantage of even more offshore opportunities in the future.”
Onshore work to support the £1.72bn Gwynt y Môr scheme is well under way.
RWE has invested £100m on special Seabreeze construction vessels and the first is expected to dock at Cammell Laird towards the end of the year ahead of the start of installation work offshore early next year.
‹
Back
The Capital, 39 Old Hall Street, Liverpool
L3 9PP
Telephone: +44(0)151 600 2900
Email:
info@liverpoolvision.co.uk