The UK and Irish Region, comprises two distinct wind power markets. In the UK, we have typically operated at between 12 to 14 per cent of the market share for new wind farm orders, and monopolised just over 30 per cent of the market landscape last year. In real numbers, this amounts to a current installed capacity of 1,206 MW in operation and a further 325 MW under construction (May, 2020). In Ireland, we have historically achieved a higher share of new orders year on year, with a current YTD market share of 22 per cent, with 823 MW in operation and a further 225 MW under construction (May, 2020).
The UK side of operations was established in 2002, and although we did do some business in Ireland in the early days, the Irish branch was officially launched in 2009. Under the legal entities of Nordex UK Ltd and Nordex Energy Ireland, we have 269 colleagues, working across three office locations – Dublin and Cork in Ireland, and our UK head office in Didsbury, Manchester. This is in addition to 10 service points which cover a vast area from Inverness in the north of Scotland, to Bridgend in south Wales. The Haslingden service point in the northwest of England is also a training centre for all service technicians in the area.
OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK FOR WIND IN THE UK AND IRELAND
The UK wind industry market has experienced some turbulence in recent years. In the past, there was an incentive for electricity supply companies to ensure a proportion of their energy was generated through renewable means due to the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme introduced in 2002. In 2014, this scheme was replaced with an auction-based system, meaning that access to government funding became more competitive, but onshore wind was omitted from these auctions in 2016 after only one allocation round. Without these subsidies, investment tailed off, and developers were forced to seek amendments to planning consents, increasing the traditionally restrictive tip heights in order to accommodate larger, more efficient turbines. This shift has meant that the Nordex Group’s latest product portfolio is the perfect fit for the current shape of the UK market, and this is best demonstrated by our latest order intake: Crossdykes in southern Scotland, coming in at 48 MW with 10 N133/4.8 wind turbines, and South Kyle, also in Scotland, comprising 50 N133/4.8 wind turbines, totalling a highly impressive 240 MW.
Nordex shares a market leading position in the Irish wind industry market and has seen significant growth over the last three years. This has been maintained by the renewable energy feed in tariff support mechanism (called REFIT). Although this has now come to an end, onshore wind support remains strong in Ireland as the market moves to the first auction round which will be held in June, 2020.
The recent developments to the UK and Irish onshore market mean that there is great and renewed potential for wind energy in the region, and the Nordex Group is in prime position to take a definitive, leading role in this.
LOCAL NORDEX GROUP REPRESENTATIVES
Nigel Hayes
Managing Director, UK & Ireland
Nigel Hayes has over 13 years’ experience in the onshore wind industry, coming from a background in project development. He joined the Nordex Group in 2015 as a Business Development Manager. He was subsequently appointed to the role of Country Manager for Ireland in 2016, and in 2018 took over as Managing Director of the UK and Ireland business.
Danny Hasledine
Head of Sales, UK & Ireland
Danny Hasledine joined Nordex in December 2013 and heads up our Sales Team for the UK and Ireland. In his earlier career, Danny worked as a Commercial Project Manager dealing with bids for global power plant projects, before moving into sales in 2003 and then specifically the wind industry in 2007.
