Four stalwarts of the energy sector have put their heads together to launch a new Aberdeen business, Encomara, focused on the development of technology for the floating wind market.
The entrepreneurial team comprises Ian Cobban, chief operating officer, Malcolm Bowie, chief technology officer, Ian Donald, executive chairman and Raymond Semple, the new firm’s chief executive.
They are launching their business and showcasing their “ground-breaking” Squid and Swift technologies at Scottish Renewables’ Floating Offshore Wind 2023 event in Aberdeen today.
Founding four have many decades of experience between them
Each member of the innovative foursome boasts decades of energy sector experience, including in wave, tidal, fixed and floating offshore wind.
Mr Semple previously led regional offshore and subsea divisions for Technip in Brazil and North America, and then global subsea businesses owned by DOF Subsea and Baker Hughes.
Before joining Encomara – quicker connected FOWTs with encomara, Mr Cobban was chief operations officer for Inverness-based Global Energy Group.
Mr Bowie has been an independent consultant and advisor in design and offshore construction for 35 years.
Meanwhile, Mr Donald – who won an outstanding achievement gong at subsea industry awards in 2017 – comes to Encomara after more than 40 years in executive, technical and project management roles.
He was one of the founding directors of Cansco Subsea, which later became Enpro.
Energy services group Hunting acquired Westhill-based Enpro in 2020, in a £25.6m deal.
Mr Donald was previously founder and managing director of innovative subsea firm DES Operations, which in 2007 was acquired by US oil and gas engineering giant Cameron for around £18.5m.
He has a proven history of taking marine innovations from concept to commercialised products and developing teams to evolve them into leading companies.
Encomara’s small team aims to recruit “key onshore personnel and engineering talent” in the next six months.
The founders are expecting rapid growth, thanks to “ground-breaking solutions which introduce a new era of full life-cycle efficiency, safety, sustainability and reliability to floating offshore wind operations, irrespective of water depth”.
They told The Press and Journal “significant” research and development investment had already led to the company’s first patented product, Squid – a “quick connector for power cables, mooring lines and anchor interfaces”.
Mr Semple said: “By 2050, 15% of all offshore wind energy generated is forecast to come from floating offshore wind turbines, which equates to 15,000 turbines.
“We are extremely well-positioned to maximise this strong market potential with our agile and dynamic approach to delivering fast-turnaround turbine installation, operations and maintenance scopes, and eventual decommissioning.
“We’ve taken inspiration from the scale-up success of fixed wind as well as other offshore sectors’ methodologies, culminating in solutions which are safer, greener, faster, cheaper, and higher yielding than the traditional installation methods.”
Floating Offshore Wind 2023 is taking place at P&J Live today and tomorrow.
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