A global pandemic hasn’t slowed progress for the rapidly growing team at Orsted’s East Coast Hub as the delivery of green energy continues to ratchet up in Grimsby.
The opening of a new visitor centre, with a mission-critical role to inspire the next generation of employees to pursue STEM subjects, gave those at the helm opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved while most battened down the hatches.
And with the mood music from Westminster pushing the renewables industry on at record pace - with offshore wind not only the poster child for the 10-point plan but a pivotal piece of the emerging green hydrogen economy too - activity isn’t slowing any time soon.
Read more: Meet the Grimsby sisters combatting climate change from the heart of their home town
Since Covid first struck, the world’s largest offshore wind farm has been commissioned, its successor has begun the build out, scores of technicians have been recruited to operate and maintain them, while the first wind farm Orsted built to be run from the town has come out of its service warranty agreement - meaning it is in complete control of the team, having been handed over by Siemens Gamesa.
All against a backdrop of evolving working conditions to ensure key workers were as safe as possible as the unknowns of coronavirus were dealt with.
Darren Ramshaw heads up the £14 million base, from where crews of technicians backed by highly skilled colleagues sail out to the cluster of arrays in the near North Sea.
Reflecting on the past 18 months, he told how Darwin’s take on the importance of being the most adaptable, over strength and intelligence, had never been truer.
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He said: “Change has been a constant. We are having to be agile, having to create as much certainty as possible for people who work for us and we’ve kept the focus on what we are here to do, which is create green energy. That gives you a sense of purpose.
“We had to go through social distancing, through testing regimes - lateral flow then PCR - we put curtains up on the crew transfer vessels to create environments where people felt safe. All these things gave people comfort as we followed government guidelines.
“With the availability of information, people reading and learning, we had to manage the messages carefully, and tried to answer questions as quickly as possible.
“As a human being you want normality, stability - but if there was one constant it was change.”
Face masks remain as restrictions ease with a sense of responsibility to keep the lights on too, while across different desks global supply chains are focused upon.
“Managing construction has been even more challenging,” he said of the work across the hub and at Humberside Airport, Hull and many other locations. “It is a global project, elements being manufactured all over the world, but it is progressing as it should, on time and on schedule.”
2020 saw renewables top fossil fuels for generation - massively bolstered by Hornsea One’s emergence, with 1.2GW of capacity added.
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Of the many milestones that have passed between first and latest public welcomes, Mr Ramshaw said: “We have had a new vessel, Wind of Hope, arrive, and that’s going through sea trials; Hornsea Two is on its way, Hornsea One was commissioned, and we’ve had Westermost Rough coming out of its service warranty agreement.
“We’ve recruited virtually, with over 1,000 applications for Hornsea Two, so we’ve been delivering in a pandemic. We have shown we have that ability to adapt.
“I talk to the team about how they have got to recognise one thing that's constant is change. We are a growth business, you think you are getting stability then there is a change.
“Hornsea One and Two will come out of that warranty period in 2024/25, there is Hornsea Three in the pipeline, a potential hydrogen project coming to the region, we reiterate to staff all the time we have to be super-brilliant at change if we aren’t going to fail. There’s Hornsea Three, Hournsea Four, then, potentially, Hornsea Five, Race Bank Extension - hydrogen, changes to hydrogen vessels. Changes are constant because we are a growing region. My job is to be that change manager.”
Drawing on previous experience in fossil fuel, he saw the visitor centre as vital addition to help explain the story, the work and the opportunity.
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“Offshore wind is relatively young, and it has seen rapid growth, and you only know what you know. We’re happy to take learning and inspiration from others.”
He is immensely proud of what has been achieved by the team, as it was opened last week,
“I listened to the energy in the room and saw what was going on, and I was imagining 10 Ethans [the special guest who at the age of eight articulately wrote a covering letter for a job on the basis of what he saw from Cleethorpes seafront through lockdown] - and the pride we will all feel, the technicians, me. It provides engagement and it creates pride in the workforce.
“It was great to engage again too. Our last opening was Hornsea One, the world’s largest wind farm, and soon it will be Hornsea Two, which will supersede it. We have circa 500 staff and it is a symbol of the growth in this region, that 85 per cent are within an hour’s drive of this hub. That emphasises the importance of this community, and how closely we are connected.”
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