Granada Material Handling Limited, based in Rochdale, has secured a £12 million contract to deliver 103 Main Access Platform (MAP) cranes for ScottishPower Renewables East Anglia ONE Offshore windfarm.
The project will be managed by Granada, and the cranes will be designed and fabricated by Sparrows in Aberdeen. In total the contract will support up to 75 jobs.
The award marks Granada’s biggest ever renewables contract to date. The fabrication of the cranes will see 99% of their parts procured within the UK. Production is expected to start early 2017 with final delivery scheduled mid-2018.
102 cranes will be mounted on to the wind turbine foundations, and one will be used for training purposes at the operations and maintenance base in Lowestoft. Each crane has a lift capacity of 1.5 tonnes.
East Anglia ONE is a £2.5billion offshore windfarm, which will generate enough renewable energy to power 500,000 homes per year. ScottishPower Renewables is on target to deliver more than 50% of UK content across the life of the project.
The project will be the most cost efficient offshore windfarm ever to confirm construction, and is leading the way to meet the UK Government's cost reduction targets. The price of £119 MWh was secured after a competitive auction process run by the Government, and is more than 15% lower than other offshore wind projects in construction elsewhere in the UK.
Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables' Project Director for East Anglia ONE, said: "It is positive to see that highly-skilled jobs in the UK will be supported with the award of this contract. Granada and Sparrows have considerable experience in delivering cranes for the offshore environment, and we look forward to working with them.
"East Anglia ONE will deliver industry-leading levels of UK content, as well as being the best value offshore windfarm ever to go in to construction. We hope that further major contracts will be placed in the UK in the coming months, adding to the jobs and investment we are already creating in Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Hull, Belfast and Aberdeen."
Mark Sidwell, Director at Granada Material Handling Limited, said: “This is a considerable achievement by our renewables team and marks a new partnership with an increased UK supply chain.”