One of the key themes of the UK's Offshore Wind Sector Deal which, itself, is part of the Industrial Strategy, is the aim of increasing the productivity and competitiveness of the supply chain in order to help achieve the 60% UK content target by 2030. The Sector Deal is effectively an agreement between industry and government which sets out what each party requires of the other.
In return for supporting the supply chain to create jobs and increase UK content in the delivery of offshore wind projects in the UK the developers gain an increase in the level of the capacity target for the UK, now increased from 40GW to 50GW by 2030 as part of the Energy Security Strategy, along with a regular Contract for Difference (UK's support mechanism for low carbon electricity) auction every two years.
Sector deal ambitions as agreed in March 2019:
The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) was set up to help achieve these aims and bodies such as the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) and the new National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) also have a role to play in assisting cluster companies to deliver new levels of productivity and competitiveness.
The OWGP is a £100m programme of industry support measures that seeks to increase the productivity and competitiveness of the UK supply chain companies. The DeepWind cluster aims to engage closely with the OWGP as it develops the activity under the programme and encourages as many of our members as possible to take part in the various calls related to the programme.
The OWGP is funded by the offshore wind developers as part of the Sector Deal. Support consists of four separate strands of activity:
This will be delivered by the offshore wind developers through their own supply chain development actions.
The three levels of support are:
Increasing the breadth of the UK supply chain by attracting cross-sector engagement and enabling new entrants to join sector.
Supporting companies developing new innovations and UK intellectual property in growth areas such as robotics, advanced manufacturing, new materials and automation.
Find out more about the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership
Download the OWGP's Sharing in Growth Offshore Wind programme flyer.
The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland is Scotland's £65m centre of manufacturing excellence based in the Renfrewshire area near Glasgow. It is the heart of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland.
The institute currently consists of two advanced manufacturing centres with the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre (LMC) joining the established Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AFRC), both run by the University of Strathclyde.
Cluster companies involved in engineering and fabrication in metals or composite materials can take advantage of the expertise available in these advanced manufacturing hubs to learn new methodologies and technologies applicable to their own products.
These centres have invested in the latest manufacturing technologies to assist Scottish companies to apply these systems in their own business as they are able to show these machines in operation and offer the opportunity to companies to experience the latest advances in manufacturing first hand.
Company personnel can also be provided with supervised training on these systems ahead of any investment by companies in these technologies thus de-mystifying and de-risking barriers to adoption by industry.
Based at the Westway site beside Doosan Babcock the LMC can assist companies to investigate new manufacturing methods applicable to composite manufacture as well as ways to reduce the weight of components by complete composite substitution or through the introduction of composite into hybrid components.
The centre leads on metal forming and forging research and covers the entire product development cycle – from material testing and characterisation through to industry standard manufacturing trials and product tests.
They also have a useful free automation advisory service for SME's which could prove useful for many of the DeepWind companies.
The Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) is the only manufacturing advisory service in the UK and gives Scottish companies a distinct advantage when it comes to advice on productivity improvements and boosting competitiveness.
They can help with a particular immediate issue or focus on a longer term change of manufacturing strategy.
SMAS offers a number of services to help you get started looking at your own business including an Operational Review or a more in depth Manufacturing Review.
They can help companies embrace a culture change and instil the concept of continuous improvement through participation in their Business Improvement Academy and can help companies understand their own position in the supply chain through their benchmarking tool, a Supply Chain Diagnostic.
Find out more about the offshore wind industry in Scotland.
The Scottish offshore wind market is now one of the largest in the world and currently leads on the development of commercial floating wind with 15GW of in the pipeline
The industry is represented at senior level by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council which brings together all the elements that go to make up the offshore wind sector.
The DeepWind supply chain cluster is now the largest offshore wind representative body in Scotland with over 820 members drawn from industry, academia and the public sector.
