Selkie – Business Support Series

Selkie – Business Support Series

The Selkie Project organised a series of events focused on providing business support for companies looking to diversify in to the marine energy sector. These events were designed to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) the opportunity to learn more about key themes from experts in the sector to help in their endeavours to enter and work in an innovative and growing industry. The series also provided opportunities to network  and engage with other companies.

Below is a compilation of recordings and materials from the series which can be used as a starting point for future reference, or to revisit as and when required.

Sell2Wales

Tenders - 20 May 2021, 10am
Experts: Sell2Wales

Managed by the Welsh Government, the Sell2Wales.gov.wales website provides a free and secure environment for advertising contract and tender opportunities. They aim to help public sector buyers to advertise and manage tender opportunities and businesses to promote their services and find contract opportunities. These include tenders for Welsh Government funded Marine Energy projects. This 'Meet the Expert' event will help your business understand how to bid for tenders in Wales, how to register and navigate the site and creating a profile for your business.

Insurance - 10 June 2021, 10am
Experts: Renewable Risk Advisers

Renewable Risk Advisers (RRA) is a specialist risk management consultancy and insurance broker with an unparalleled depth of experience of risk mitigation in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors. Session Info: Marine energy insurance looks expensive, with limited cover and very high deductibles. Why? The presentation will run through a number of real-life examples of accidents and failures in recent projects, and how to minimise the risks from the project and technology design stage onwards, including getting the right support through the project rollout.

Legal (Wales) - 22 June 2021, 10am
Experts: Stephenson Harwood

Stephenson Harwood is a law firm headquartered in London with over 1100 people and 10 offices worldwide and their work includes shipping and offshore energy practices. In maritime, Stephenson Harwood acts for owners or charterers in vessel building, insurance, financing, chartering, offshore construction and transportation projects. In energy, Stephenson Harwood has been engaged on several offshore windfarms, tidal, hydrogen, O&G and hydro projects providing corporate, finance, commercial and dispute resolution assistance. This session will discuss what different standards of performance the parties to a contract could be held to depending on the wording of the contract and the important things to include or avoid in your contract depending on whether you are the employer, contractor, sub-contractor, owner or charterer. In particular, we will look at some real cases in the areas of design risk, fitness for purpose, obligations as to time and time of the essence.

Legal (Ireland) - 24 June 2021, 10am
Experts: LK Shields Solicitors

Irish law firm LK Shields advises clients across a multitude of sectors on their infrastructure, construction, energy and commercial legal requirements including the legal complexities of offshore project delivery and risk management. This session will focus on 'Irish Offshore Renewable Projects: Legal Considerations in a Developing Market'. Including: Nature and form of typical contracts used on offshore projects • Cross-jurisdictional issues, applicable laws, permitting and foreshore licences • Irish Marine Planning and Development Management Bill • The importance of harmonising technical schedules with the body of the contract • Bespoke clauses required for managing risks • Recent case law updates in offshore and subsea projects.

Health and Safety (Wales) - 8 July 2021, 10am
Experts: Watson Ord Renewables

Watson Ord Renewables are a specialist health & safety consultancy for the renewable energy sector. After gaining over 20 years’ experience in the wind industry, Ian Ord of Watson Ord Renewables has an in-depth understanding of the industry needs and is able to provide invaluable safety support to the growing offshore renewables industries. In partnership with Setters under the banner Renewables@Setters the two Companies provide a balanced approach to safety improvement and training with a key ethos of Safety = Systems + People. This session will cover key topics in health & safety requirements for offshore renewables developments and include case studies of Ian’s work in the marine energy sector.

Health and Safety (Ireland) - 8 July 2021, 2pm
Experts: Irish Marine Safety

Irish Marine Safety provide a range of marine-based safety services for marine operations. With vast experience in health and safety management in offshore projects, in this session Irish Marine Safety will cover vital topics in safety training, management systems, risk assessments and emergency procedures required for marine energy activities and case studies on offshore projects in Ireland.

Certifications & Accreditations - 22 July 2021, 10am
Experts: Creo Skills

Creo Skills is a vocational education consultancy, with international experience, which offers training, accreditation services and qualifications for employers and other training organisations. Creo have been working to create new accreditations in the renewable energy sector for the last 10 years. In this session Creo will explain how qualifications work and how occupational standards, qualification regulations and accredited learning works in Wales and Ireland and how accreditations can be recognised and transferable. This could help employers consider how new roles and the knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required can be accredited so that standards required in the marine energy sector can be achieved and maintained.

Selkie 'Mee the Expert' Event - Testing & Validation with META & MEECE

Testing & Validation (Wales) - 5 August 2021, 10am
Experts: Marine Energy Test Area (META) & Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE)

The Marine Energy Test Area (META) is a newly operational marine energy test centre in Pembrokeshire, Wales. We aim to reduce the time, cost and risks faced by those looking to test marine energy devices and equipment in order to accelerate growth in the sector. META will be presenting alongside the Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE) which is a multi-million-pound collaboration between the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Welsh universities. Based at Pembroke Dock, MEECE delivers research, development and demonstration activities to support innovation in the Welsh supply chain, accelerating the commercialisation of the wave, tidal and offshore wind sectors by reducing cost of energy. Together META and MEECE will delve into the process for developing, testing and validating new technology and how real sea testing at pre-consented sites like META alongside support from MEECE to design, deploy and assess technology can play a valuable part in this process.

Fabrication for Marine Energy - 19 August 2021, 10am
Experts: Mainstay Marine

As a Wales Marine Energy device fabricator, Mainstay has substantial technical understanding of fabricating and assembling prototype devices having completed four builds with the fifth due to start imminently. This had included the use of marine engineering expertise, intimate understanding of marine processes, optimum location for marine based projects and extensive experience in this emerging and fast growing sector. This session will cover key success and challenges of fabrication and engineering for the marine energy sector, experience of diversification and case studies of work that Mainstay Marine Solutions has carried out for leading marine renewable developers.

Manufacturing for the Marine Environment - 2 September 2021, 10am
Experts: Safinah Group

Safinah Group are experts in optimising coatings to protect marine assets. They offer independent consulting and technical services to the whole spectrum of coating activities covering the entire lifetime of an asset from product specification, selection and application to maintenance, repair and failure investigation. In this session Safinah will talk about their experience in creating functional specifications to optimise performance, reduce maintenance, reduce costs and prolong the lifetime of assets in harsh environments.

Raising Investment - 16 September 2021, 10am
Experts: GS Verde

The GS Verde Group are a corporate finance-led group, specialising in investment raising, acquisitions and business sales. Our expert, Louise Santaana is a Director of Verde, the Corporate Finance arm of the GS Verde group. In this session, Louise will explore ways businesses can acquire various types of funding, covering the various stages in an organisations lifecycle where capital may be need to be raised to support growth or exit. She will talk about some real life examples and you will have the opportunity to ask any questions.

Testing & Validation (Ireland) - 30 September 2021, 10am
Experts: LIR, SmartBay and AMETS test sites

Ireland’s ocean energy test and validation infrastructure will be presented in this webinar. Learn about the LIR National Ocean Test Facility in Cork, Ireland where state of the art wave tanks and electrical rigs allow developers access to scaled testing in a controlled environment. Hear about the SmartBay test site, Ireland’s intermediary scale open sea MRE test facility which presents an ideal opportunity for device developers looking to bridge the gap between test tanks and the open-sea for their technology validation. Find out about Ireland’s development of the full scale test site Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site (AMETS), an energetic site where developers can test at full scale ahead of their final stages of pre-commercial development. Join us on the 30th September to learn about Ireland’s ocean energy expertise.

Project Engineering & Naval Architecture for Marine Operations - 11 November 2021, 10am Experts: Morek

Morek Engineering is a Naval Architect and Marine Engineering consultancy based in Falmouth UK. They are firmly focussed on the design and deployment of marine renewable energy technologies, offering support to technology developers at all stages of the technology readiness scale. Their experience ranges from the controlled confines of tank test facilities through to offshore deployments in some of the worlds most energetic ocean environments. In this meet the expert edition the Morek team will run through some of their key learnings from these experiences and offer guidance on how they use their technical expertise to reduce risk of offshore projects..