click here to download the energy brochure 2009

Welcome to The Waterfront,Barrow in Furness : Gateway to Britain’s Energy Coast and an Energy Hub of the North West of England,

The Waterfront Business Park is "Barrow's Energy Coast Business Park".

It is also a "gateway to Britain's energy coast."

Here companies can use the Business park to service local energy coast customers or to service global customers and markets, much in the same way as established firms do from sites within the Furness area.

Now using The Waterfront firms can enjoy locational advantages that Expro,Schlumberger, Oil States MCS,Trelleborg, and others have already achieved.

The Waterfront is located adjacent to :

• The home port for PNTL ships operated on behalf of International Nuclear Services,
• The condensate export condefacility of Centrica Energy
• The Baesystems test and commissioning area for new nuclear power reactors in submarines.
• The operations and maintenance bases supporting offshore windpower and offshore gas developments.

The most visible sign of The Waterfront's role in energy developments is its role as a focus for servicing offshore Irish Sea windfarm developments.

Dong Energy have set up two long term operations and maintenance bases in the port to service their Barrow Wind Farm and their  Walney wind farm.  

Vattenfall have one for their Ormonde site which they run jointly with Repower UK.

Scottish Power Renewables and Dong Energy will also establish one to service their West of Duddon Sands investment.

We are not aware odf any other west coast port with such a concentration of operations and maintenance bases.All this helps make The Waterfront a good choice for firms looking to support wind farm supply chains.

The Waterfront also stands next to Baesystems shipyard, home of Britain's nuclear submarine industrial base.The site therefore may appeal to companies wishing to service this activity aswell as the emerging civil nuclear power generation projects at Sellafield in west Cumbria or Heysham in Lancashire.

Nowhere within the UK is there a more strategically important area than the West Coast of England, and in particular for energy generation, the Furness Peninsula and its offshore coastline west of Barrow-in-Furness. Barrow is the Gateway to Britain's Energy Coast. 

Barrow's port and airport, mix of companies involvement in oil, gas, onshore and offshore renewable energy, hydroelectric power, civil and defence nuclear power generation locally and globally and a presence of companies like Acrastyle delivering control and switchgear equipment complemented by a strong engineering and systems integration supply chain presence  give Barrow and Furness a head start in contributing to realisation of the energy coast objectives.

The fact that Barrow has the largest and most complex gas processing facility in the UK . They are located off Rampside Road with capacity to harvest any natural gas yet undiscovered in and around the East Irish Sea as well as complete the depletion of existing gas fields makes iThe Waterfront potentially an important site for supply chain businesses.

The Waterfront can also contribute to Barrow port able to service East Irish Sea exploration or development of gas and oil fields. The licensing area map shows the strategic location of Furness for new development.  See the Map here

Barrow could  be involved in several LNG import and offshore gas storage projects that could be developed in line with the Government's White Paper on investing in securing UK energy supplies through additional natural gas storage.Again The Waterfront may have a role in supporting this development.

There is also prospect of a new biomass power plant at Roosecote being serviced from the port by a railway and imported biomass products.

Combined with fossil fuel production it is a unique coastline known to be highly suitable for capturing wind energy from offshore turbines and with tidal conditions highly suitable to harness power from tide and wave technology.

Onshore power generation from both nuclear, Heysham Stations and several fossil fuel power stations is a well established industry along with a huge body of expertise to support the increasing diverse energy sector. There are also now schemes for up to four new nuclear sites in north Lancashire and Cumbria which will be serviceable from Barrow using its port and airport.

The town of Barrow and others in and around Cumbria are renowned for producing the high calibre of engineering skills so complimentary to the energy sector, particularly the nuclear industry.   Furness Enterprise in collaboration with Furness College has a proven track record of training and placing engineering skills within the existing industries all of which have shown to have an appetite to adapt and grow within new and existing markets. To ensure the continued economic growth of the area the continued focus on Furness as the Energy Hub is vital to the long term social and economic stability of Cumbria.

 

Click Here to download the pdf of the 25th round east irish sea licencing blocks offered in 2008

The Energy Resources already exploited the advantages of locating in Furness at the Gateway to Britain's Energy Coast

• Offshore gas fields and subsea gas storage at the Morecambe Bay and Rivers complex and associated onshore processing and gas injection delivered through Centrica Energy and Stag Energy.
• Nuclear decommissioning is supported by several local firms involved at Sellafield and other sites in the UK.
• 300 and 500 people commute daily to work at Sellafield from Furness. Over 70 companies and research organisations also supply the global energy industry including nuclear decommissioning.
• Nuclear Power Generation – design, development, test, commissioning of nuclear reactors at BAE SYSTEMS and provision of technical expertise worldwide.
• Electricity generation – gas fired Roosecote 229MW power station.
• Electricity generation – onshore wind farms at Kirkby, Millom, Harlock , Ireleth, BAE SYSTEMS, Tesco Barrow.
• Electricity generation – East Irish Sea offshore wind farms at Barrow, and 3 more planned by Vattenfall (formerly Eclipse Energy), Dong and Scottish Power.
• Electricity generation – hydro-electric power at Haverthwaite and Coniston.

Furness and South Cumbrian designed/manufactured products for the energy sector are in use throughout the UK and are exported to all the main energy provinces of the world, examples include:

Click here to download a list of Energy, Oil and Gas service companies in the Furness area.

• Freedom Agrilek throughout the UK
• Acrastyle in Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
• Diamould in Russia and Brazil.
• Gilbert Gilkes as worldwide suppliers of hydroturbines.
• Expro in South Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.
• Ametek with subsea cabling in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Gyrodata Drilling Automation Limited in Norwegian coastal waters.

Click here to download a list of Energy, Oil and Gas service companies in the Furness area and how you can see what they do by looking at their websites.

Centrica Energy's gas terminals at Rampside

These are located some 3km south east of Barrow-in-Furness and are one of Europe’s largest gas processing facilities.

The first terminal commenced operation in 1983, and the second in 1994. In the mid 2000s' a third terminal servicing the ‘Rivers’ field went on-stream.

The terminals have capacity to process up to 15% of the UK’s gas requirements. Two new gas compression facilities adjacent to the south terminal are proposed by Stag Energy and Centrica. Hoegh plan a gas metering facility servicing an LNG import facility.

Energy Prospects in and around Furness

Furness Enterprise evidence to the UK Government's Energy Review setting out our views on future energy, security of supply and development potential can be viewed here click here.

Opportunities for new energy related investment in Furness along neifghbouring coasts and off the coast of the Peninsula include:

• Gas processing: Landing new Irish Sea gas fields at Rampside as set out in Barrow Borough Local Plan policy A12 on page 2 - 24 of the Local Plan.
• Underseabed gas storage for peak period use.
• LNG import by sea
• Offshore wind power generation.
• Onshore wind power generation.
• Wave power equipment manufacture including current turbines.
• Nuclear engineering - Module fabrication, systems integration and floatout.
• Nuclear power station development
• Waste to energy schemes. 
• Onshore construction support and maintenance bases at the port of Barrow. 

 

• Natural Gas – We support further exploration and development for gas in the Irish Sea arising from DBERR’s May 2008 and earlier rounds of licensing. These will help reduce UK’s reliance on overseas imports and maximise the life of the gas processing assets at Barrow’s Rampside Terminals. New proposals for subsea storage facilities in Irish Sea salt cavities by Stag Energy, Centrica Energy and Hoegh for LNG imports would help safeguard strategic energy supplies for the UK and boost employment and strengthen established oil and gas supply chains in Furness.  

 

• Nuclear – We support development of four new proposals for nuclear generating capacity within Cumbria and north Lancashire and, where possible, utilisation of the skills and expertise that exists in Cumbria to design, test commission, build and operate nuclear powered electricity generating equipment for civil and defence applications.  We also support transfer of skills and expertise in design, build and operation of defence related nuclear steam raising plant to the civil nuclear power industry. Rolls Royce and BAE SYSTEMS’ naval nuclear reactor expertise at Derby and Barrow is particularly important in this respect.

 

• Grid Networks – We support reinforcement of grid networks where it will help realise new sources of energy generation.  In particular we would support new initiatives such as reinforcement of the South Cumbria onshore power line and an offshore cross Morecambe Bay link.  In 2001 the Lake District National Park Authority indicated support for an up-rated, overhead line in Cumbria to accommodate new generation locations.

 

• Renewable Energy – we recognise this intermittent energy source contribution to the potential energy mix able to give UK security of supply. We favour offshore wave/wind energy where it contributes to economic regeneration and energy needs in the locality of such developments.  By this we mean there should be active policies to require developers and their contractors to contribute to the socio-economic benefit of the area in which they operate, perhaps building on the principles enshrined in the way the nuclear decommissioning agency are required to operate. In the offshore renewable wind energy sector it is still difficult for UK firms to break into manufacture and design as much equipment is sourced overseas.  DTI’s own study into the industry highlighted the threat of “the growing UK wind market being served by non UK wind turbine suppliers that locate sales offices only in the UK utilising their own manufacturing facilities” and of “overseas manufacturers choosing to import turbines from existing factories to use spare capacity before investing in new facilities in the UK.” (DTI Renewables Supply Chain Gap Analysis, January 2004). In other countries there are examples of regions requiring developers to set up maintenance or production facilities and to benefit local economies.  We believe the UK should look at acquiring large scale wind farm developments to deliver potential economic benefits to the areas they are situated in.

 

• Skills for the energy industry - it is vitally important that the UK sustains its energy sector skills base and looks to build up its nuclear energy generation plant skills base. The Energy Challenge is as much about skills retention and development as securing energy supplies. We therefore support proposals for developing an indigenous industrial base in renewable energy and proposals for a national nuclear skills academy.  We drew attention earlier to the fact that Barrow has the only nuclear reactor assembly test and commissioning capability in the UK.  Locally we are actively involved in supporting initiatives aimed at influencing young people in the 13-18 age group to consider career opportunities including apprenticeships in the energy sector. We have helped Walney School secure major sponsorship by Centrica Energy for the school’s planned Engineering Status bid to the Department of Education.

 

•  Energy related employment - is important in the Furness Assisted Area sustaining many jobs.  We support measures designed to exploit the energy resources of the sub region and its coastline such as the gas processing assets at Barrow and in the Irish Sea.

 

 

Establish  your energy development at the "Gateway to Britain's Energy Coast", call 01229 820611. To learn more about the discretionary Assisted Area grants potentially available to assist energy developments in Furness click here

 

Click here to download 2008-09 Task Force Briefing of Furness is part of Britain's Energy Coast

 

Centrica's Sambhi Sees Wind Power From Irish Sea by 2017

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Sarwjit Sambhi, managing director of power generation at Centrica Plc, talks with Bloombergs Francine Lacqua about the outlook for the companys offshore wind program after winning licenses from the British government. Sambhi, speaking from London, also discusses the prospects for the energy produced, the estimated costs of building wind turbines in the Irish Sea and the prospects for attracting outside investment. Centrica, RWE AG and Statoil ASA won licenses in Britains $120 billion offshore wind program, the worlds biggest, as the nation plans deep-water turbines to meet emission targets and help avert an energy shortfall. (Source: Bloomberg)

 

Expro

A new custom-built site will consolidate Expro’s Connectors & Measurements operations in Ulverston, UK

http://www.exprogroup.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=83

Our broad views on energy investment priorities

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