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Green energy jobs for Fife
19/12/2005
A £5 million contract for the world's deepest offshore wind turbines, which could create around 60 jobs for a Burntisland construction company, was announced today.
Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd and its co-venturer Scottish and Southern Energy have awarded the contract to fabricate two substructure jackets and their associated foundation piles for the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstration Project to Burntisland Fabrications Limited (BiFab).
The project will see two large 5MW installations nearly 25km offshore in the Moray Firth in summer 2006, the furthest from shore and deepest location for an off-shore wind farm in the world to date.
Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen was in Fife to mark the award of the contract and said that Scotland stands to gain massive economic as well as environmental benefits from the drive to harness growing levels of green energy.
Mr Stephen said:
"We have set ambitious targets for renewable energy in Scotland, and we are determined that at least 40 percent of our electricity will be generated from renewable sources by 2020.
"We are making great strides with onshore wind generation. Our challenge is to supplement these developments with offshore wind, wave, tidal and hydrogen technologies.
"The Beatrice Wind Farm is the pioneering project for offshore wind development in Europe. It will play an important part in the future development of clean, green energy and our drive to massively increase our renewable energy output over the next 15 years.
"Today's contract award also emphasises that Scotland will benefit not only environmentally, but also economically from more renewable energy.
"This announcement clearly demonstrates the economic benefits which a strong renewables industry can bring to Scotland. This contract is worth over £5 million. It will create about 60 jobs at this stage and during full scale production could create over 300 more.
"In realising our ambition to make Scotland a world leader in renewable energy, there is massive potential for Scottish businesses such as BiFab to have a key role to play in the development of the sector.
"This contract confirms that Scotland has the skills, the competitiveness and the ambition to be a world leader in renewable energy."
John Robertson, Managing Director of BiFab, said: "We are very pleased to have won this contract against stiff international competition.
"Not only does it show that Scotland can remain competitive in the global market-place for heavy fabrication work, but it also gives us the opportunity to put ourselves at the cutting edge in a new technology which could eventually deliver a large number of longer term employment opportunities for our workforce."
Paul Blakeley, Talisman's UK vice-president, added: "We have been making encouraging progress in the awarding of contracts for this exciting project and are pleased that we have been able to select a UK bidder for this critical component."
Talisman Energy (UK) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Talisman Energy Inc.
The contract awarded to BiFab is for the fabrication of two substructure jackets and their associated foundation piles for the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project. The project, which is still subject to further DTI oil and gas consent, would pioneer deepwater wind farm development distant from shore with the planned installation of two 5MW wind turbine generators on the UK continental shelf adjacent to the Beatrice Alpha platform.
The structures will be approximately 70 metres high and will be sited in the Moray Firth more than 23km from shore in water depths of around 45 metres.
Subject to receipt of necessary approvals, offshore installation will be carried out during summer 2006 with commissioning complete and first power available in late 2006.