Safety equipment provider Cosalt and wind industry engineers APRO form UK offshore JV

28 July 2010

Specialist provider of critical safety equipment for the marine, industrial and offshore markets Cosalt and Danish wind industry engineering company APRO have formed a wind joint venture. 

The new entity, Cosalt Wind Energy, will sit under Cosalt’s recently formed renewable energy division and target the UK offshore wind energy sector.

Cosalt recently set up the dedicated renewable energy division to supply inspection and testing services as well as marine safety, lifting equipment, tooling and height safety products to the renewables sector, particularly offshore wind farms.

It also provides legislative compliance support, quality assurance and safety competency services through its Cosalt compliance team.

Established in 1998, APRO has a history of installing and servicing onshore and offshore wind turbines, having formed previous contracts with many of the world’s major wind turbine manufacturers, including Vestas and Siemens.

Cosalt has 11 operational bases in the UK, many of which it said offer immediate access to the wind farms being built off the UK coastline.

In the Humber area alone, it forecasts an additional 5000 wind turbines to be in operation by 2020.

Based in Cosalt’s new head office in Grimsby, the joint venture will be headed up by Winston Phillips, managing director of Cosalt’s renewables business.

Joint owners of APRO, Lauge Fredhave and Henrik Moeller-Jensen, will join Cosalt Wind Energy’s board.

Mark Lejman, CEO of Cosalt, said, ‘This joint venture with APRO is an important step towards realising our objective of developing a major renewables business in the UK and Europe. Together we can deliver a complete package of safety, engineering and inspection services to the wind energy market.’

Phillips said that over the next few months the company will look to strengthen its dedicated operations in Grimsby and recruit service engineers.

Henrik Moeller-Jensen, CEO of APRO, said, ‘We have worked in the wind energy sector for many years and we know how to recruit, train and manage a large workforce of qualified wind turbine engineers. The formation of Cosalt Wind Energy means we can now back this up with all the products and services required to operate safely and effectively in a hostile offshore environment.’

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: offshore wind, wind

This story was published on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Europe, companies, wind. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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