How East Anglia is driving the UK's energy landscape forward

As a leading service operations vessel (SOV) operator, North Star is at the forefront of this evolution, championing local partnerships and operational excellence to meet the demands of tomorrow’s energy landscape.

The Southern North Sea has been very active in offshore wind for as long as I can recall. I remember the excitement of ScottishPower Renewables’ East Anglia ONE project moving the dial in size and scale around 10 years ago, and how my trips to the region started with client visits for crew transfer vessel related activities.

There were also the many events hosted by the enthusiastic EEEGR team, cementing the opportunity regionally and encouraging the supply chain on that landmark project.

These all helped initiate some great friendships that still last today, with many of those faces now reaching the highest heights of the offshore wind industry, such is the draw of the East of England as an energy powerhouse.

Moving to more recent times and my work at North Star, an Aberdeen-headquartered company, I recall being told in 2019 that we’d acquired Boston Putford, a business with the same family values and operational excellence, but at the other end of the country in Lowestoft.

I knew instantly it helped place us at the epicentre of Southern North Sea activity, surrounded by multiple gigawatts of wind farms either delivered or to be delivered in the coming years.

And with that, my pride grew again to work with our amazing team located on the harbour front in Lowestoft in the iconic Columbus buildings.

North Star acquired Boston Putford in 2019 and has a base on Lowestoft harbour front (Image: North Star) The footprint, reach and local recognition that Boston Putford holds has been a joy to see. Regionally, the support of the local supply chain allows us to operate our 42 vessels and transition to our offshore support and SOV ambitions.

Within North Star, and certainly with our SOV journey, we’ve always championed our local supply chain. One great relationship that supports our conventional energy and offshore wind fleet is with Alicat Workboats of Great Yarmouth.

How they evolve and improve their outputs and in turn our product, demonstrates how we like to operate. They in turn have managed to increase their apprenticeship scheme. We all win.

While our total fleet of eight SOVs, either delivered or in build, is a source of great pride (and well deserved), it is of immense importance to our team in Lowestoft that we recently secured a contract for a long-term offshore wind service logistics SOV from Siemens Gamesa.

This ship will be at ScottishPower’s East Anglia THREE wind farm for at least eight years, visible from our office windows. This will be a springboard for many more vessels to be placed within the region, and it will be a sight to see.

Andrew Duncan is renewables and innovations director at North Star.