Ports Infrastructure, Part 1: Getting Ready For Offshore Wind

David Rennie has been Global Head of Energy Trade with Scottish Development International since February 2020, focused on helping Scottish companies to trade overseas in the energy sector.

Prior to that, he held a number of roles within Scottish Enterprise. For most of his time with SE, he was head of Oil and Gas, working with stakeholders, the company base and trade bodies to help the sector to grow and evolve, as well as representing SE in a number of groups, including the Scottish Government Energy Jobs Task Force from 2015 – 2017 set up to deal with the downturn in the Energy sector. 

Priorities over recent years included developing SE’s approach to decommissioning and subsea, leading an ambitious programme to grow Scotland’s Subsea Engineering sector, with a focus on supporting the company base; diversification and innovation.

Until recently, David was on the boards of both Subsea UK and the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC).  David has been with Scottish Enterprise since 2010 and prior to that worked as an Economist for the Scottish Government, Welsh Development Agency and also in the private sector.

22 years of experience in project development and advisory services in renewable energy, spatial planning and environmental protection.

Founder & CEO ekoLINK (consulting services), Co-founder (1997) and President (since 2013) of Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society (PTMEW) – offshore wind industry network in Poland, Advisor to Parliamentary Group for Offshore Wind Energy.

A Chartered Engineer with a proven track record over his 30-yr career, Don Lamont is the Head of Ports & Maritime services at Atkins, where he leads their design, engineering and project management expertise to deliver an agile team with a reputation for innovation and collaborative excellence on the most complex challenges ports face. Atkins is in the vanguard of the digital revolution, putting clients at the centre of everything we do.

Colin McCreath is an Associate Director in the Infrastructure group within the North Sub Region of Arup where he leads the Advisory Services business. Colin has considerable experience, both in the UK and working in Canada, in the design and delivery of a broad range of Civil Engineering projects, gained over a 25 year period of working in the industry. The projects he has been involved in are varied and include maritime works, railways, bridges, highways, tunnels and numerous geotechnical works.

Colin has considerable knowledge of a number of ports sites around Scotland having undertaken commissions for a variety of clients including Crown Estate Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Forth Ports. Recently Colin led the study for Crown Estate Scotland which reviewed the suitability of Scotland’s ports to meet the likely demand of the offshore wind industry to 2040.
Other knowledge has been gained from assessing potential upgrades to OSW manufacturing sites in Scotland and previously in organising ground investigations and undertaking quay wall stability assessments leading to the design of significant enhancements to the infrastructure of a number of ports, over a period of many years. Sites where these commissions were performed included Port of Dundee, Fife Energy Park in Methil, Port of Leith in Edinburgh, Port of Rosyth and Port of Grangemouth. In addition Colin led a marine access study to assess the suitability of the Energy Park in Methil for anticipated future demand of the offshore renewable industry.

Borbala leads the Maritime & Ports team in London with a specific interest in port planning advisory and renewable energy infrastructure markets. She has a successful track record in the completion and management of multi-disciplinary engineering projects in the infrastructure, offshore and built environment sectors. Her expertise lies in the planning and design of maritime and associated port infrastructure required for ports and terminals, oil and gas terminals including LNG and offshore wind farms/ port logistical bases.

She also has experience of a number of high value due diligence and technical audit roles for a range of international banks, infrastructure funds and private equity investors for various project of cargo types including container, dry and liquid bulk, offshore wind, RoRo, cruise & ferry etc (often specialising in opex and capex assessment of port and marine infrastructure). Her recent VDD portfolio reviews cover all UK major port operators and facilities including ABP, Peel, Forth and PD Ports.

She has significant international experience covering Asia, Northern Europe, Africa and Australasia, and spent a number of years working within large client organisations including Shell Global Solutions International B.V and Scottish Power Renewables. During the latter she led the ports tendering and procurement early phases from 2015, including supply chain engagement and interviews for major contracts such as foundation manufacturing and installation logistics, through to completing in 2020 with lessons learnt and close out on EA1. She is Framework Directors for Arup’s SPR and Orsted Offshore Wind Frameworks.

Łukasz Sikorski is the Country Manager of OWC in Poland. He is a MBA graduate and an engineer with a humanist soul, with almost 15 years of experience within the wind industry. Engaged in providing variety of services related to the project development and implementation, both on land and on sea. This includes tasks like the feasibility studies or technical reviews of the wind farms, due diligence processes for the projects’ financing or acquisition purposes, risk evaluations and assessments or advisory helping understood energy sector and local specifics. For offshore wind business Łukasz was engaged, among the others, in the project management and quality assurance activities, co-authored design specifications, tender documentation and project development management procedures, managed the delivery of the advisory and supervision services for wind measurements campaigns and project development activities, while also worked on the risk management and mitigation issues. Currently is actively delivering the advisory services to the Polish projects being at various development stages and providing support to some other developments within the global offshore market.

Łukasz was also engaged in the development of the Polish offshore wind sector, including regulatory guidance while taking active part in the branch work groups and cooperating closely with the market stakeholders. Having special interest in the cost reduction issues and place of the offshore wind in the future energy mix provided variety of thought leadership materials in form of articles, workshops, presentations and discussion panels.

Łukasz Sikorski leads as the country manager the Polish office of Offshore Wind Consultants in Warsaw which provides consultancy services to developers of and investors into offshore wind projects for their full life cycle. Prior to joining OWC, Łukasz led an advisory team at one of the technical consultancies providing engineering advice to the renewables sector, but also worked for a leading global developer constructing some of the major wind farms in Poland.

Piotr has been involved in broad maritime business for 18 years, initially in conventional shipping, through heavy transport to shore organisations. Business development manager for Seaway 7 during last 4 years, focusing on mapping of the potential of local industry in Poland and in search of effective logistic solutions.