Ørsted announces agreement with SeAH to become first customer for UK wind turbine monopiles

Published:  10 November, 2021

Ørsted has announced a multi-million pound agreement to be the first and lead customer for monopile foundations manufactured at the planned UK facility of SeAH Wind Limited, a UK-based subsidiary of SeAH Steel Holdings (SeAH). The deal, subject to securing a Contract for Difference and Final Investment Decision (FID) for Hornsea Three offshore wind farm, plays the leading role in triggering the production of monopiles in the UK for the first time.

Under the agreement, SeAH will be a key supplier of monopiles for Hornsea Three, manufacturing them at the planned new factory at Able Marine Energy Park, on the Humber – a site which is expected to become the world’s largest monopile production facility and capable of producing the extra-large monopiles required for the new generation of larger wind turbine models.

SeAH anticipates starting its manufacturing operations in 2023, with the Humber site at full capacity and peak employment by the end of the decade with a world class set-up – discussions are ongoing over the final number of monopiles that will be supplied to Hornsea Three by SeAH’s new facility.

Working with Ørsted’s multi-disciplinary team over an 18-month period, in July 2021 SeAH Wind Ltd took a £260m FID for the new factory in the Humber, which is expected to create up to 750 direct jobs by 2030. Alongside this announcement, the UK Government confirmed an offer of grant support to SeAH Wind Ltd to help secure the internationally mobile investment project for the UK.

Home to Ørsted’s East Coast Operations & Maintenance Hub and the world’s largest offshore wind farms, the Humber region is forging a global reputation for low carbon manufacturing and innovation. The region is at the forefront of the UK offshore wind industry and is already playing a leading role in securing the sector’s future success.

Hornsea Three was granted consent in December 2020 and will be the latest addition to Ørsted’s UK fleet offshore wind farms – with a capacity of approximately 2.4 gigawatts (GW). Once complete, the project will be capable of providing clean electricity to more than two million UK households – helping deliver on the Government’s offshore wind ambition of 40GW by 2030 and an enhanced UK supply chain.

Ørsted has invested over £13 billion constructing new offshore wind farms in the UK in the last decade and Hornsea Three will be the 14th project in UK waters for the company. By 2030, offshore wind will be generating more than a third of the UK’s electricity.

Duncan Clark, Head of Region UK at Ørsted, said: “Through collaboration across Government, Industry and supply chain, this agreement represents another positive step towards creating a larger and sustainably competitive UK supply chain to support the next chapter in the UK’s offshore wind success story. The Hornsea Three team has worked extensively with SeAH Wind to support their investment decision to establish a new, globally competitive monopile foundations factory in the UK. We very much look forward to continuing our work with SeAH in bringing this landmark project to life and ultimately to deliver competitive monopiles from a UK fabrication facility for the first time.”

Joosung Lee, COO and senior executive vice president at SeAH Steel Holdings, said: “SeAH Wind will play a pivotal role in the UK offshore wind supply chain. And we would like to thank Ørsted team for proceeding the negotiation with a faith on SeAH Wind’s vision. This agreement validates our ambitious plans to build the largest possible monopiles from our state-of-the-art UK factory and it has only come about through hard work, collaboration, and a willingness to work together to help deliver on the UK Sector deal commitments. Ørsted is not only a market leading developer of Offshore Wind farms, but also in developing new supply chain entrants, the fact that they have entrusted SeAH with a multi-million pound contract for Hornsea Three is huge commitment and we will endeavour to work alongside Ørsted to deliver this pivotal project. With this bold investment SeAH Wind plans to invest significantly in both people and technology, in doing so play our part in the UK green industrial transition which in turn will deliver both sustainable jobs and help to achieve our net zero carbon targets.”

Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change Minister Greg Hands, said: “We are putting the British offshore wind industry at the heart of our green recovery, investing millions in infrastructure to develop a home-grown UK manufacturing supply-chain that will help create thousands of high-skilled, green jobs. Today’s multi-million-pound agreement between Ørsted and SeAH Wind is a fantastic example of industry cooperation and a huge vote of confidence in the Humber region – demonstrating how our commitment to tackling climate change is helping to unlock investment across the UK as we build back greener.”