Soil researcher Fugro saw revenue growth of 27.5 percent last quarter. This is because the company benefits from the European Union’s ambitions to build offshore wind farms.
The EU has big ambitions when it comes to offshore wind farms. Last week, seven EU countries (plus the United Kingdom and Norway) came together in Ostend, Belgium. The Netherlands was also there. All nine countries have an ambition to generate 120 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050. That’s 30,000 wind turbines in the North Sea, said Gerard van Bussel, formerly professor of wind energy at BNR.
Also Read | ‘There will be 30,000 wind farms in the North Sea’
Fugro CEO Mark Hein thinks these ambitions are great. But implementation is going wrong, he sees. Cooperation between countries in this regard is a tricky issue. ‘Eventually there is a need to standardize the type of wind turbines that will be installed and the permitting process should be shorter.’
Demand will increase
The difficult implementation not reflected in Fugro’s quarterly figures has to do with the amount of work ahead of installing those wind turbines. ‘We are busy with it.’ He expects the services offered by Fugro to be in high demand both within Europe and around the world.
Fugro is involved in determining which foundation can be built on land or sea. The company does this by looking at the presence of sand, clay and stones in the ground and what forces can be applied to them.
‘We can still find people, but training staff will take time’
employees
Hein is pleased with the improvement in margins and cash flow that can be seen in the figures. But Fugro also suffers because today’s costs are high and the company needs more people. ‘We can still find people, but we have to train them and that will take time.’ It is a game of supply and demand. ‘Prices are going up, costs are going up and that will ultimately have to be passed on to the builders and operators of those sectors. It’s going reasonably well so far, but it remains a concern.
Also listen to BNR Breaks | The North Sea is a great place to be full of wind farms
