Stuart
5/7/2024 1:55:43 PM
3 mins read
Winners of the 2024 Humber Renewables Awards used the stage to encourage the next generation to take the industry forward on a sparkling night of celebration.
A dozen years of recognition of the sector’s sensational role in helping regenerate the region were rung up as the event once again became a fitting finale to Humber Marine and Renewables’ Offshore Wind Connections conference.
Held at Hull’s DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel – a venue that the event heard “probably wouldn’t have been built had it not been for the emergence of offshore wind,” - 200 guests toasted standout stories uniting the Energy Estuary.
Camilla Carlbom Flinn was crowned Humber Renewables Champion, with her work to diversify the fourth generation family business and take the host organisation to a new level highlighted, as well as impressive ambassadorial duties with her proud Swedish heritage.
And RWE was named Medium to Large Business of the Year, recognising the huge commitments made to the region with skills programmes, vessel purchases and operations and maintenance expansion.
Its focus on the future workforce was embraced by many winners, with demand clear.
Long-term operator from Grimsby, Tidal Transit, won the Green Innovation Award, for its pioneering electric crew transfer vessel project, with a full retrofit of a diesel craft.
Leo Hambro, commercial director, said: “I am delighted that after 12 years of working in the Humber, we are now creating a change that will not just last for another 12 years, but for generations. It will make a change, not just economically, but environmentally, reducing emissions.
“We are delighted to work out of Humber. The support we have found locally is second to none, the supply chain, the clients we work with directly are so supportive, and we feel like part of the family.”
Turning to requirements, he said: “We can’t do it on our own. We need mariners, there is a lack of them, and for tomorrow there is an even bigger problem. We need to engage with kids at any age to show them there isn’t just the opportunity to be a wind engineer, there are opportunities to work at sea, to create a full life career.”
One potential avenue to pursue is the work being done by the industry’s “town centre billboard” - an inspiring and educational box park. Projekt Renewable Grimsby landed last year. As well as developing an immersive experience within repurposed shipping containers, it is to offer boat trips to near-shore wind farms this summer.
Taking the Engaging the Community Award, director Richard Askam, said: “The thing that made me the most pleased was that everyone in the room now knows a little bit more about Projekt Renewable. Projekt Renewable is for everybody in that room so it is a nice symbiosis of what is needed. Alongside the innovation and investment, we need communication; to get kids to understand what it is they all do. Then they will take it on.”
A recent £100,000 Crown Estate investment into the project was also flagged. “It is astonishing when you look at the seniority they have in the industry, and in the UK. It is UK Plc backing this project that happens to be in Grimsby but it is a UK problem of lack of awareness. We hope this will be number one, and The Crown Estate has intimated they want to have several of these around the country and that would be great for everyone.”
Excellence in Renewable Education, Skills and Training went to Hull College, with work on the vital home heating transition highlighted.
Robin Makey, assistant principal at Hull College, said: “It is fantastic recognition for the staff and the learners of the college, and it is a great platform for us from which to continue developing the skills and enabling learners to thrive and go into this wonderful industry which will support our community and our world.
“We have a range of heat pumps installed, the first contained cylinder heat pump in the country, and it is wonderful for us to be able to show retrofitting of domestic appliances for everybody.”
Hull’s River Energy and Renewables Ltd was named Small Business of the Year having made major strides with the consultancy.
Frank Saunders, head of energy and renewables, said: “It is excellent to be recognised for the hard work we have done as a small business, and a new entrant into the marketplace. It is testament to the amazing team that we have got, and all our great clients as well.”
Guy Hunter, co-founder and commercial director, added: “We were traditionally a telecoms company but we moved into the energy space and brought people like Frank in with a wealth of knowledge in the industry and has helped us grow into it. Hopefully we can become a big player in it.”
Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s 5G Portal – a testbed for the latest technology to be deployed on wind farms, focused around Grimsby and the Lincolnshire Coast – won Best Renewable Energy Project. The living lab brings digital advances to the fore.
Nicola Robinson, business development manager at ORE Catapult, said: “It is evidence that collaboration really does work. The partners have worked together to create something that benefits so much more than Grimsby alone.”
Katharine York, manager of ORE Catapult’s Grimsby-based Operations and Maintenance Centre of Excellence, added: “It is about having facilities in Grimsby that mean people need and want to come here, the new technology, the things that make offshore wind farms run better and more efficiently, and more safely in future. Having Grimsby on the map with this sort of facility, can really start to do these things.”
