Alun Williams
Global Offshore Renewables Director
Driving offshore wind development through partnerships
At RPS, we strongly believe that partnerships are vital for developing the offshore wind sector – pooling talents and deploying skills and experience where they’re needed. They will fill potential resourcing gaps in a fast-growing industry and help newer markets to scale up, at speed.
In our role as a trusted advisor and delivery partner, we have built valuable relationships that support a range of projects and project types. Find out how connections like these are part of shaping the offshore wind industry, and how they enable successful project development for our clients.
Why are partnerships so vital?
RPS' Global Offshore Renewables Director, Alun Williams, explains more in this 30-second video introduction.
For a more in-depth discussion, click here to read the full insight - which includes RPS examples of how partnerships have helped our clients.
Alternatively, scroll down for individual case studies.
What makes a project partnership successful?
This short animation, released in time for Valentine's Day, takes a light-hearted look at project partnerships themselves. What goes into building successful ones? The RPS team thought back over our long experience of working on complex projects - and had fun explaining why a project partnership can be a little bit like a marriage! (Turn on sound for the full experience.)
Growing the workforce, engaging with stakeholders
An important U.S. project with SouthCoast Wind brought together two groups with a common goal. RPS Protected Species Observers had the chance to work with local tribal communities, who are passionate about protecting the environment. The program widened access to entry into the PSO role, while engaging with local stakeholders.
The need for industry collaboration on baseline surveys
Marine studies are often done to support individual developments. But that means every project is essentially starting from scratch and may repeat work already undertaken by an adjacent developer. Smarter resourcing through working together would yield a better outcome.
Helping to support industry development in emerging markets
Working with one of Korea's top-tier universities - Seoul National University (with their Marine Environmental Impact Statement Institute) - allows us to exchange insights and support those who are shaping the offshore wind industry in this new market. It also enables us to support developers by gaining a better understanding of decision-makers' expectations.
Industry partner for science and technology initiative
TIDE is a major funding initiative of the Australian Research Council (ARC), and hosted at The University of Western Australia (UWA). RPS is one of several industry partners for the initiative, which plans to develop new science and technology through digital engineering. Its aims are to inform the development of marine renewables and optimise the operation of existing and future offshore energy infrastructure. Read more here.
Photo: RPS' John Tompson, Murray Burling and Roger Edgecombe at the official TIDE Research Hub launch, November 2022.
Press play on the video, featuring Murray Burling, to learn more about TIDE.
(Video courtesy of UWA)
Pooling knowledge to support Australian offshore wind
Despite the size and skillsets of our in-house teams, we looked externally for additional expertise to ensure we offered our client the best possible scientific and technological methodologies. We partnered with several universities, benefitting from their specialist research skills and local experience via the foremost experts in their disciplines. As baseline data on species likely to be impacted by offshore wind development is extremely limited in Australia, any prior research is critical.
Working with local partners and understanding local content
Regulators and stakeholders need to feel confident in the assessments their consultants make, especially in a new market like Korea where there are some known challenges.
Find out what we looked for in a Korean consultancy partner, and how SEKWANG Engineering Consultants brought the right balance of marine infrastructure expertise, local knowledge and experience, and approach.
Answering industry challenges
Understanding bird behaviour and collision risk around turbines – and informing that with empirical data – has been a big question for offshore wind. Being able to answer this with real data is a huge step forward.
Learn how we worked with DHI Group to put cutting-edge camera and radar systems onto turbines to gather these data, bringing together our impact assessment expertise and DHI’s technology to improve one of the industry’s biggest consenting/permitting challenges.
Internal partnerships: building on international experience
In Australia, the new offshore wind industry is starting to ramp up. This article from our Australian team looks at the power of learning from other regions such as the UK (and building on the experience of other RPS teams) to set the standard for offshore wind development in Australia.
Related read: prioritising the renewables supply chain
As ambitions in the renewables sector grow – seemingly week by week – meeting them is increasingly linked to the supply chain and the constraints it could present.
Why are partnerships so important to us?
RPS is trusted by developers for absolute project delivery and global experience, but being stronger together is another part of our company ethos. We're open-minded when it comes to collaboration because we know it enables our clients to achieve more.
If you already know us in one specific sphere of offshore wind project development, you might be surprised to see what else we work on! Our commitment to bringing together the right skillsets and the best science means we connect the dots, leading on contracts for highly successful project outcomes.
If you would like support in finding solutions to your offshore wind challenges, get in touch with the contacts below.
You can learn more about how we support offshore wind development projects here.
Key contacts
