Offshore Wind Brings Two More Companies to Lowestoft

Red Nine, a company providing solutions in the inhospitable and remote locations for the oil and gas sector, has set up an office at the OrbisEnergy hub at Lowestoft in Suffolk, UK, in order to offer its services to the offshore wind sector.

Red Nine believes that setting up its first UK office in the OrbisEnergy building will help broker solutions to colleagues in the offshore wind sector.

Alan Leech, Red Nine Director and Consulting Engineer, said: “OrbisEnergy is a key location for developing offshore renewables. We have years of experience offshore, in oil & gas, but moving to OrbisEnergy will help us diversify and develop into the offshore renewables industry with a real emphasis on providing cost-optimised solutions. We will start with a two-man office, but plan to grow.”

Red Nine is one of the two businesses that recently opened an office at OrbisEnergy. Namely, Norwich-based Vissim Renewables, a provider of monitoring systems for ships, personnel and assets ranging from wind farms to military missile ranges, also decided to set up an office at the hub.

The company hopes to use the new location to set up a marine control suite which will be used for training for up to six people, but can also be used as a standby control suite for clients if their own has problems.

“This is an ideal coastal location – because we can rub shoulders with others in the offshore wind world, and it is as close as you can get to the wind energy environment,” Managing Director, Glyn Grayson, said.

OrbisEnergy, opened in 2008, is an industry incubator owned by Suffolk County Council and managed by enterprise agency Nwes.

The hub, home to 160 tenants, is close to a number of developing offshore wind farms.