Alstom UK President named on Offshore Wind Programme Board

Steve Burgin, Alstom UK President, has been invited by Edward Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to join the Offshore Wind Programme Board (OWPB).

The Programme Board is a partnership between key stakeholders in government and the private sector that has been designed to provide strategic leadership to the offshore wind industry in the UK so that the opportunity of green jobs and green growth can be grasped.

Steve Burgin has been Alstom's UK president for four years, has more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry and is a member of DECCs Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Task Force. In the UK Alstom employs 6,500 people and has an annual turnover of £1.5bn.

This is both an honour and an exciting opportunity to help drive forward the development of the UKs offshore wind sector, said Steve.Offshore wind is already an important part of the UKs energy mix and it is only going to become more important in the future as we look to take advantage of the countrys natural resources in order to help reduce our carbon emissions. I am sure that this will be a challenging and most rewarding role.

Alstom is active across the energy value chain in the UK, already helping maintain around half of the UKs power stations. The company has built four out of the last six gas-fired power stations in the UK and will supply gas turbines to a fifth. Alstom also owns and operates the UKs only high voltage transformer manufacturing facility, and has a leadership position in grid connections.

The companys turbines power the Clachan Flats, Maesgwyn and Whitelee extension wind farms, and Alstoms Grid business supplied and installed offshore transformers for the Robin Rigg, Barrow and Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farms.

Going forward, as wind farms are built further and further offshore, Alstoms high voltage transformer technology will become more and more important in order to maximise the efficiency of power transmission from offshore wind farms.

The company has recently signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce to acquire Tidal Generation Limited (TGL), specialised in the design and manufacture of tidal stream turbines, and has a stake in AWS Ocean Energy which is developing a wave power device.