Aspire Capital has joined forces with Maersk Training to ensure the booming UK offshore wind sector has the skills it needs for the future.

The UK leads the world in the deployment of offshore wind technology with more than four gigawatts of capacity installed – enough to meet the electricity needs of over 2 million homes.

As more and more offshore wind farms are being constructed around the UK coastline, it is vital that technicians with the right skills and experience are available to maintain the turbines. Anticipating a potential skills gap, Aspire Capital is working with Newcastle-based Maersk Training to give people a head start in the industry.

A 12-week training course, developed by Maersk, covers areas such as working in confined spaces, electrical awareness, working at height, manual handling, sea survival, first aid and fire awareness. Thanks to the partnership with our technical partners, the course includes several weeks of hands-on experience working offshore on wind turbines.

Following the success of a pilot scheme last year, the course will run again in 2016 with people recruited from the Barrow-in-Furness area, Barrow, Walney and West of Duddon Sands, with a combined capacity of 845 MW.

Adrian Macklin, Head of Operations at the company’s Barrow offshore wind farm, said: “We knew there were enthusiastic, self-motivated people with some of the right skills out in the job market. This course allows us to expand people’s skill sets and build on existing qualifications with real-time experience, paving the way for potential new careers as wind turbine technicians.”

He added: “The success of this scheme is testament to everyone involved. I am delighted we will now be repeating this support in 2016 with local candidates from the Barrow area, which hopefully will assist local people in securing long-term employment.”

Stuart Cameron, UK Managing Director at Maersk Training said: “The continued rapid expansion of the offshore and wind energy sector means that high quality technicians are more in demand than ever to fill the increasing number of roles. It has been estimated that an additional 70,500 skilled workers will need to be employed within the industry by 2023 so there are some fantastic opportunities for those seeking employment in the region. Our diplomas have led to graduates receiving job offers from some of the industry leaders”.

With one of the world’s best wind resources at our disposal, offshore wind energy could meet 35% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2030 and support 50,000 skilled jobs, according to a new Offshore Wind Vision document released today.

The vision document is being launched as part of Offshore Wind Week (16-20 November), a cross-sector initiative involving many of those responsible for licensing, developing, manufacturing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms in the UK. Offshore Wind Week is supported by organisations including Associated British Ports, MHI Vestas, the Offshore Renewable Catapult, RenewableUK, RWE, ScottishPower Renewables, Siemens, SSE, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall among others.

The UK is already the world leader in deployment of this fast developing renewable energy technology with over 3.7 gigawatts (3,700 megawatts) of capacity – enough to power 3 million homes – built in the last five years alone.

“Offshore wind is one of the great UK success stories, unfolding at a time when the country is facing an energy security challenge and needs low carbon technologies to replace traditional power sources,” said Benj Sykes, Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council.

“It is only 15 years since the first UK offshore wind farm – just two 2 megawatt turbines – began operating. Since then the technology has matured rapidly to the point where the UK leads the world in deployment and could readily build 30 gigawatts of capacity by 2030 – enough to meet 35% of UK demand.”

He added: “The industry has shown it can deliver these large energy infrastructure projects to time and budget, but continued momentum is important to build investor confidence. Costs are falling rapidly thanks to investment in new technology and increased competition. As a result, the level of subsidy has fallen by 38% – this is a real success.

“What we need to see is a clear pathway for offshore wind through to 2025. This will provide the UK with the best opportunity for cost effective decarbonisation and ensure that we maximise the export opportunity for the UK supply chain.”

UK offshore wind is beginning to realise its export potential.  Government assisted exports from local offshore wind companies in 2014-15 were alone worth £90 million, up from £1 million the previous year.

The vision document is being launched at a reception in the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday

17 November, hosted by Peter Aldous, the Conservative MP for Waveney in Suffolk. This is one of a series of events being held this week to highlight the achievements and potential of the UK offshore wind sector.

Key points set out in the vision document include:

• Offshore wind is getting cheaper with the level of subsidy dropping by 38%. The technology is on track to be competitive with other new generation sources by the mid-2020s.

• ​Offshore wind has become the most productive of all the renewable technologies, and this improvement is set to continue. The newest wind farms are already operating at load factors of up to 50%.

• ​The sector is attracting global investment. Since 2010, the sector has attracted over £9.5 billion from investors encouraged by stable and predictable regulatory regimes for renewable energy.

• ​Offshore wind is creating skilled jobs around the country and already provides employment for 13,000 people. With continued deployment of offshore wind, that figure could grow to 50,000 people working in the UK offshore wind industry by 2030 across development, supply chain, construction and operational roles.

Commenting on today’s speech from the Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change on UK energy policy direction, Aspire Capital Managing Director said:

“Aspire Capital welcomes the Secretary of State’s speech on future UK energy policy and her confirmation that offshore wind will continue to play an important role subject to cost cutting conditions being met.

“The UK currently leads the world in the deployment of offshore wind. Aspire Capital Group, along with other key players in the sector, has this week published an Offshore Wind Vision which shows that the technology is becoming increasingly cost competitive, has already created 13,000 jobs, is building a healthy UK supply chain and providing valuable export opportunities.

“The UK has been a great place to invest in offshore wind and Aspire Capital along with its technical partners has outlined an ambitious investment programme.

Aspire Capital in partnership with renewable energy developers is finalising initiatives to power millions of homes by sunshine and wind farm technology in Africa.

The over 50 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, with a combined population of about 1 billion, produce roughly the same amount of power as Spain, a country of just 46 million.

The shortage imposes a massive burden on economies in the continent, constraining growth and leading to hundreds of millions of people remaining mired in poverty.

The International Energy Agency in Paris has announced that renewable energy will satisfy much of Africa’s growing power needs by 2040, as the continent unlocks its vast hydro-power resources.

South of the Sahara Desert, energy demand is expected to grow 80% as the economy quadruples in size over the next 30 years, with renewable energy supplying almost half of the growth.

Aspire Capital is in talks with potential partners and investors to bring these projects on stream.

Aspire Capital Managing Director, Stephen Okoekpen, said: “Renewable energy is extremely valuable to sub-Sahara African economies, reducing our carbon emissions and providing low-carbon energy supplies, as well as jobs and long-term investment.

Aspire Capital Consulting has been awarded three new contracts with global oil and gas operators, the company reported today.  The deals will see Aspire Capital provide the customers with specialist drilling and well engineering personnel through its consultancy division, which was launched in 2012.

Aspire Capital Technical Director Barry Cooper commented in a company statement: “These recent contracts are key in the growth of the consultancy division and shows our ability to work with large global operators. We first launched ACG consulting service following increasing requests from clients who required personnel rather than full management of their operations, and we are already experiencing high interest, which is a great achievement.”

Aspire Capital Group  announced today that Barry Cooper, Technical Director, will present at the 8th Annual Sub-Saharan Africa Oil & Gas Conference, 2015 on Wednesday, 29th April, 2015 in Houston Marriott Westchase, USA .

Following a busy start to 2014, we are delighted to announce that Poifo Matoya has joined Aspire Capital as our Consultancy Manager. Poifo brings a wealth of experience to the team and will be responsible for both internal recruitment for Aspire Capital projects and placement of consultants in the Oil and Gas Industry.

Aspire Capital has been contracted by Dana Petroleum to provide Drilling Support for a Deepwater Exploration Well to be drilled in 3000 metres of water, Offshore Guinea in Q3 2014.

We have been advised of numerous individuals applying for or being offered jobs with Aspire Capital Group or one of its subsidiaries as a result of emails and/or advertisements appearing on websites. These emails have not been sent, and these advertisements have not been placed, by us. We cannot accept any responsibility for these false advertisements or offers or the consequences of anyone responding to them.

We understand that these advertisements may be placed by persons who then seek employment fee or personal information which could potentially be used for identity fraud. If you have provided any personal information in response to any email or websites offering jobs with us, we recommend that you take action to minimize the risk of misuse of such information.

To inquire about employment at Aspire Capital, please forward a resume and cover letter by email to: careers@aspire-capital.com

Please note that Aspire Capital does not use recruiting or placement agencies that charge candidates an advance fee of any kind (i.e. placement fees, immigration processing fees, etc.)

Novatec Energy and its partners are mulling over expressing interest to bid for Angola’s upcoming tender for new oil concessions. The Angolan National Oil Company (Sonangol, E.P.) is making arrangements to open a tender for new exploration concessions this year.

In a note on Friday, Sonangol, E.P. says that to this end, the company will make technical presentations on Monday in Luanda the Angolan capital, to inform about the potential of the concerned blocks.

The concessions are located in the blocks situated on the Congo Basin onshore (Con 1, Com 5 and Con 6) and Kwanza Basin onshore (Kon 3, Kon 5, Kon 6, Kon 7, Kon 8, Kon 9 and Kon17).

The company states that all national and foreign companies and interested investors are invited to register to bid.