Renewables are worth it for Ecosse Subsea Systems

Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) said it had benefited as an ‘early adopter’ moving from traditional focus in oil and gas to the renewables and interconnector markets with the expected turnover to double in the current financial year.

Subsea and engineering technology company ESS forecasts its turnover in the current financial year will double to between £23-£25 million, with profits jumping to around £5 million and staff numbers growing from 35 to 50 employees.

Mike Wilson, ESS Managing Director, predicted a bright future following the transition into renewables and after a year which included R&D investment of £1.4 million on the company’s boulder clearing tool known as the SCAR 2 seabed preparation system.

As a company specializing in oil and gas, offshore wind, wave and tidal industries, ESS said it was responding to fresh opportunities to deploy its technologies in emerging markets in the Baltic Sea, the Far East and USA.

Wilson said: “Our traditional revenue streams have been replaced after successful diversification into offshore renewables and interconnector projects, and the company has strong growth opportunities in these areas. The next year and beyond looks very promising in renewables, the interconnector market and in oil and gas, where there are some green shoots starting to appear.”

The latest accounts for the year to March 31, 2016 show ESS’ turnover of £12 million compared to £17.6 million the previous year, while profits were £704,000 compared to £1.3 million, the company informed.

In the current financial year, ESS has executed a £5 million project on the Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm on behalf of DONG Energy, and extended a trenching scope on an earlier project on behalf of Prysmian Group on Iberdrola’s Wikinger offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.

An international infrastructure group also commissioned ESS to design and build a £3 million 1500-ton carousel and associated spread to be used in the storage of spare cables required for UK offshore wind farms, while other technologies including a backfill plough have been contracted for a major interconnector contract.

As reported earlier, ESS has in 2015 secured £100,000 from Wave Energy Scotland through a competitive call focused on innovative power take-off systems for wave energy converters.

Also, ESS together with Robert Gordon University (RGU) completed the first phase of development of the WWM wave energy converter said to be able to generate several MWs of power per device.

Furthermore, the company is developing a WMW tidal energy converter which uses ESS’ existing technologies reconfigured for application in tidal areas.