Last checked at 20 Aug 2010 09:00
Costain Group PLC ("Costain" or "the Company")
Costain Alliance Offers Renewable Power Solution
As the Government increases its efforts to curb carbon emissions from the power generation sector, Costain is aiming to win a stake in the renewable energy market.
Offshore wind farms offer the prospect of more predictable and consistent weather conditions than their onshore counterparts, together with fewer problems in gaining planning permission. However, constructing them in an offshore environment is more technically challenging.
Costain has teamed up with Hochtief and Arup in a new alliance. This will seek to design and build the offshore installations that are anticipated to spring up over the next decade.
These installations will, in a large proportion of the zones, require large concrete structures, known as gravity base foundations, sitting on the seabed and into which the wind turbines can be attached.
This is where Costain comes in, explains the Director in charge of the Group's efforts in the sector, Colin Duff.
Bidding concluded this year between various developers and energy providers and the Crown Estates (which owns the rights to the seabed around the UK) for 'Round 3' of the licences that will allow companies access to the seabed to install the wind turbines. "If everybody develops the sites they say they're going to - and that depends on how far they take Round 3, what happens to other forms of energy and our use of energy - the offshore market could be worth £200billion by 2020. The foundation element of that is £50 billion," says Duff.
A gravity base foundation would be a flask-shaped concrete structure 30-40 metres in diameter, 60-70 metres tall and weighing around 6,000 tonnes.
Winning contracts "will come down to having an affordable, deliverable solution," says Duff. "The most efficient way of achieving this is by setting up a manufacturing facility to mass produce the gravity base foundations."
To meet the aspirations of the government in terms of their targets for renewable energy production - of which offshore wind is a major part - the facility will have to be capable of producing a unit every two to three days
The consortium is currently assessing suitable sites for port facilities to produce the foundations. They would be constructed by a slipforming process operating round the clock.
A renewable energy conference in Liverpool at the end of June saw the consortium making a presentation and taking a stand in order to further develop its relationships with its potential customers involved in Rounds 2 and 3 of the offshore bidding process. In July the consortium, along with Martin Land, Power Sector Director, gave a presentation at a Costain-sponsored Renewables event in London, emphasising Costain's capability to deliver multi-discipline projects for power generation infrastructure.
20 August 2010
Enquiries:
| Costain Group PLC | Tel: 01628 842444 |
| Graham Read, Communications Director
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| College Hill | Tel: 020 7457 2020 |
| Mark Garraway |
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| Adam Aljewicz |
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Notes to Editors
Costain is one of the UK's leading construction and engineering companies and is currently at the forefront of the drive to develop and improve the nation's infrastructure.
In its targeted sectors, Costain is playing a major role in the provision of new facilities for a range of sectors ranging from waste to transport. The Company's strategy is entitled 'Choosing Costain' and everyone in the organisation is committed to making Costain the automatic choice in terms of both business and technical excellence.
Costain's origins date back to 1865. Since then the Company has featured in some of the world's major construction projects including the Channel Tunnel. Now the Company focuses on specific sectors within three divisions: Infrastructure - Highways, Rail, Airports and Nuclear sectors; Environment - Water, Waste, Marine and Education sectors; Energy & Process - Nuclear Process, Power and Hydrocarbons & Chemicals sectors.
Costain has a strong order book. Significant contract awards include the £397 million contract (design, construction and commissioning of 44 different facilities) for the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. In addition, Costain has won (as part of the 4D consortium) a £225 million contract with Southern Water to manage the design and build of a new wastewater treatment works in the Brighton and Hove area. Costain is also heavily involved in the Nuclear sector and in the Summer 2009 announced the award of a £297 million contract for full Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Inactive Commissioning of the Evaporator D project at Sellafield.
The Company's status was underlined at the Construction News 2009 Quality Awards when Costain won the Supreme Award for best overall performance. More recently, the Company was named 'Contractor of the Decade' by New Civil Engineer at the magazine's annual awards in London in August 2010.
For further information please visit : http://www.costain.com/