Today, Reach Plc, the media organisation behind Business Live and national, regional and local news platforms across the country is encouraging readers to #Do1Thing to help abate a climate crisis. Here David Laister looks at Grimsby's contribution as it leads the world in offshore wind deployment...
With offshore wind farms capable of providing more than two million homes with light, heat and power now served from our town, Grimsby has become a great green gateway to a largely hidden new world of power generation. This 2.6GW electricity-providing fusion of nature and innovative engineering means the town can truly lay claim to leading the world on an industrial footing once again.
A 13 year tale of success has seen Grimsby dodge the hardest recession of a generation and emerge front and centre of core government policy.
From the world-leading developers and equipment manufacturers who descended on the docks to the sole-traders, caterers and cleaners who quickly saw opportunity, all are part of the journey that has so far still to go. A pathway to 10GW is known, and more is highly likely.
To put it into context, that figure is double the amount of ‘black’ energy the UK’s largest power station, Drax, was belching out as the first turbines of Lynn and Inner Dowsing completed their inaugural rotations – almost one tenth of the UK electricity demand.
Working with those spearheading this renewable revolution, the passion and pride has been clear, as inward investment has flowed into the town, revitalising quaysides that were rotting into the water they gave such great access to.
Claims it was an industry dominated by contractor-only workforces, flown in from Denmark, Germany and the like, quickly dissipated as scores of permanent jobs became hundreds in brand new shiny facilities dotted around Port of Grimsby East, the renamed Grimsby Fish Docks.
Having “Europe’s best offshore wind real estate on our doorstep,” as a senior Crown Estate figure once described the near North Sea to me, has undoubtedly been seized upon. It made the first port on the Humber, and the estuary in general, a must for many when it came to presence.
A small group of forward-thinking individuals, each bringing their own expertise and exceptional contacts books to these initial blue chip developers, had united to help Grimsby first establish, and then expand such a cluster we now see. From the port, the local authority, engineering, maritime and ship’s agency, great minds got together to help the town make the most of this new sector.
With a work-hard, play-hard mentality, the town’s undoubted fishing-inspired understanding of the need to keep a boat, and now a turbine, operational – saw multi-national companies amazed by the response when calling on local companies for assistance. Here a public/private collective known as Grimsby Renewables Partnership has played a blinder in uniting the two. Relationship building, introducing and informing, all with the knowledge of that geographical blessing.
The cluster has increased in scale as the turbines and industry have, with Orsted’s decision to put their East Coast Hub in Grimsby a monumental step forward. Branching out to Royal Dock, the next generation of vessels that even proudly bear the town’s name are more in line with the commercial counterparts that have shared their moorings, than the original crew transfer vessels first sailing from a solitary pontoon.
Victorian engineering has once again played a kind hand with the spacious port facilities, but thoroughly modern thinking has advanced the abilities of a town emerging from that albatross of once-proud fishing port, too often used as a generic backdrop for a broken industry tale.
It is clearly a pillar upon which the Greater Grimsby Town Deal aspiration is built, and the cornerstone for a much wider low carbon economy.
Hope arrived, and has now brought aspiration with it for a growing, green, environmentally friendly industry, one to turn heads of those emerging from school gates, college doors and university halls. Greta would be proud.
Maturing, now well into industrialisation, but as we have heard in the past 12 months with the signing of an Offshore Wind Sector Deal, an industry still in its infancy with so far still to go. We’re not even a quarter into what we know about, the ‘known knowns’ – let alone the great unknown of future offshore wind development rounds.
Having worked with those early pioneers of this dedicated partnership, I was delighted to join the board of GRP three years ago, and help continue the great work as an early industry establishes itself. The daily reporting of advancements is a pleasure for someone with two small, but growing, personal stakes in this area, to look out for too.
It was several years ago now we, under the masthead of the Grimsby Telegraph, nailed our colours to the wall as a media organisation, rebuffing those initial ‘expensive energy’ concerns – and even suggestions of lost fishing waters – with the view that if this was UK policy, we should do all we can to ensure the jobs and investment comes our way.
Offshore wind is now coming in cheaper than gas, and much cheaper than nuclear. And the jobs are local.
There are still hurdles to jump, and issues to resolve. Energy storage will help address the inconsistency of the wind when it comes to generating peaks and troughs, and as scale continues to develop and risk falls away, cost will slide further.
An offshore oil and gas model emerging in shift patterns for the inflating number of technicians means the importance of those working locally, living locally, dwindles – but creating the training opportunities for our own, and the cluster model ever building, plays in our favour strongly.
If you’re from here – you’re more likely to stay here, especially if competition offers choice and career development.
This special focus is a great opportunity to stop and reflect on how far we’ve come, while incredibly aware of how far we still have to go, and grow.
Only in November did we hear of the plans for the Operations and Maintenance Centre of Excellence from the Offshore Renewable Energy Renewable Catapult, then there’s talk of bringing tourism to the sector as we capitalise on leading the world.
We’ve already welcomed economic development visits from the US Eastern seaboard, China, Taiwan and Australia. Why not engage with the end users of this generation, the good people of Leeds, York and Sheffield too? A virtual or physical immersive experience to get up close to these feats of engineering would surely further demonstrate just what has been achieved.
For decades Grimsby has been known for supplying your Friday fish supper – now we’ve got the green credentials to cook every other meal that week too, the tablet or smartphone you get the recipe off or the television Saturday Kitchen is shown on.
We should be proud to be part of a community so welcoming to an industry that happily calls the town home.
