Wind turbine investment boost for UK concrete sector

18 February 2011

The announcement by Gamesa, the Spanish green energy group, of plans to invest and make the UK the company's global centre for offshore wind development should provide a boost for the concrete sector.

Jorge Calvet, the Gamesa chairman, believes that the UK has the skills and supply chain to deliver thousands of offshore wind turbines over the coming decade. Gamesa proposes to build a manufacturing plant, either on the Tyne or the Humber, a research and development facility at Glasgow and a manufacturing facility in Dundee. The company plans to build what is claimed to be the world's most advanced wind turbine and would directly employ 1,200 people in the UK with a similar number of jobs created among suppliers.

Gamesa will make its next generation of wind turbines wholly in the UK. The 7 megawatt turbines will be over twice the size of the largest turbines currently on the market with a diameter of 125 metres and a tower of 110 metres. Other energy companies are also looking to invest in Britain including Siemens with a £80 million manufacturing plant in Hull, Mitsubishi with a £100 million renewable research and development centre in Edinburgh and General Electric who has said it plans major investment but has yet to release details.

The planned investment follows the Government's commitment to the Round 3 of offshore wind farms that include major developments in the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth, the Thames Estuary, the Bristol Channel, in the Irish Sea and on Dogger Bank off the coast of Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

"The announcement by Gamesa and plans by other energy companies for significant investment in wind turbine technology and manufacturing is a boost for the UK concrete sector", said Andrew Minson, executive director of MPA The Concrete Centre. "The next generation of larger wind turbines the will operate in coastal depths of between 30m and 60m will require a new range of foundation solutions. These solutions are being developed by the concrete sector".

One such solution is concrete gravity foundations, typically in the form of large cellular caissons ballasted with rock or sand, offer particular advantages for deep water offshore locations. These include robustness, dynamic performance, design flexibility and whole life cost efficiencies. The high damping properties of concrete minimise vibration. This negates potential structural fatigue failure. For tall offshore wind towers the use of concrete gravity foundations instead of monopiles provides improved dynamic response. Meanwhile, the use of established flotation techniques for gravity foundations avoids the potentially complex decommissioning processes and environmental issues associated with driven monopiles in the sea bed.

A particular advantage of concrete gravity foundations is that their onshore construction provides greater certainty of programme as potential weather delays are minimised whilst the development of innovative placement techniques eases the installation process and minimises the use of expensive heavy lifting equipment.

"The concrete sector is working closely with the civil engineering and renewable energy industries to provide foundation solutions for the next generation of wind turbines", said Minson. "These solutions will play an important role in helping the UK meet its renewable energy and low carbon targets".

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