Partner Article

McNulty kick starts £6m project

NAREC has appointed McNulty Offshore Construction Limited to carry out the pre-construction services for an offshore an platform works, in a deal worth £6m.

The monitoring platform represents the first phase of construction of Narec’s offshore wind demonstration facility, which when completed will provide global turbine manufacturers with the opportunity to demonstrate their prototype wind turbine generators and foundations in the North Sea.

The platform will collect the necessary environmental data to inform the development, construction and operation of the demonstration site.

Tony Quinn, Director of Major Projects and Assets at Narec, said: “This appointment represents a significant milestone in the development of the project.

“At a time when industry in the UK is looking to diversify into the low carbon energy sector, it is encouraging to see that McNulty Offshore Construction Limited is in a position to transfer traditional oil and gas skills to the emerging offshore wind industry.”

Strategic Investment Funding of £18.5m was awarded to the project by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in February of this year.

An additional £4.35 million was awarded to the project in March from One North East’s Single Programme Fund, to bring the total available funding to £22.85m.

This joint investment is enabling Narec to progress with plans to deliver a 100MW grid connection and an offshore monitoring platform, with the capacity to accommodate up to 20 large-scale prototypes at an offshore wind demonstration site off Blyth, Northumberland.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .