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Jarrow’s Wescott Coatings wins German wind farm deal

Wescott Coatings has landed a second contract with European power giant ABB, which will see the Jarrow-based business work on a German wind farm.

The industrial specialist will undertake coatings repairs and applications to ABB’s DolWin Alpha platform, linking the 400MW Borkum West II offshore wind farm to the German mainland grid.

The contract follows close on the heels of Wescott’s successful completion last year for similar work on the nearby BorWin Alpha platform.

Jane Bulman, Wescott’s HSEQ & Compliance Manager, explained, “The BorWin project was tendered, as most such work is, with particular emphasis on environmental concerns which meant we not only had to comply with European environmental legislation on offshore debris but actually ensure we created zero unmanaged waste.

“This was achieved by using both an innovative closed loop blasting system which collects all chippings and recycles abrasive material for disposal, and vacuum attachments on mechanical preparation tools to prepare the surface for coatings.”

The new DolWin project will be of a similar but larger nature and is due to commence later this Summer.

Jane added: “The offshore renewable energy facilities are fairly new – BorWin Alpha, for example, was only commissioned in September 2009 – and have been designed with continuous asset management as a priority.

“Offshore oil and gas structures, however, are very much older and were designed to have a far more limited life span and therefore represent different challenges for coatings repair and renewal.”

“The talk up to last year was all about decommissioning but, with the oil industry now far leaner and able to extend the life of oil and gas fields, even when the price is far lower, through innovative recovery technology, the talk is about asset management, a large part of which is corrosion prevention, which is where we come in!”

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