The UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain Spotlight 2024 took place on 10 December 2024 at the prestigious Excel Centre in London’s Docklands, hosted jointly by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership.
With over 100 supply chain companies exhibiting, a keynote address by the UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP, over 500 attendees, 13 industry organisations sponsoring, and 31 direct presentations made by participating supply chain companies to potential clients, Spotlight 2024 was a resounding success. New connections were forged and potential partnerships explored. There was also the news of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) being announced as the Delivery Partner for the Industrial Growth Plan (IGP) for offshore wind.
This dynamic annual exhibition and conference represents the highlight of our busy events calendar and creates a high profile, low-cost platform for supply chain companies to engage with industry. This was the third edition of the event, which is designed to shine the spotlight on the work of a selection of the innovative supply chain companies supported through Fit for Offshore Renewables (F4OR), Launch Academy, TIGGOR and OWGP business support programmes.
The event brings together senior political and industry leaders, investors and procurement specialists with many of the UK’s leading supply chain companies. Event sponsors for 2024 included Equinor, EnBW, BP, Ørsted, ScottishPower Renewables, Bluefloat Nadara and The Crown Estate.
Our packed conference programme featured Keynote sessions and panel discussions – debating solutions to the UK’s national renewable energy challenges, and how to achieve industrial scale collaboration to progress the Industrial Growth Plan – with participants including UK Minister for Energy Michael Shanks MP and Dr Julia Peace, Interim Executive Chair at Innovate UK together with leading figures from GB Energy, Innovate UK, Renewable UK, Offshore Wind Industry Council and National Wealth Fund.
Keynote Session 2: Assessment of Progress on the Industrial Growth Plan and Next Steps
Breakout sessions covered topics such as how to partner with developers and how to move to innovator from supplier, as well as providing opportunities to hear directly from supply chain companies themselves. A breakfast briefing, ‘Skills in offshore renewables’, was hosted jointly with the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult and featured invited expert speakers from Equinor, Ørsted and ORE Catapult.
Sustainability was front and centre, touching virtually every aspect of the conference – from carpet-free exhibition areas to locally-sourced vegan cuisine, and digitally-driven registration and onsite communications.
Conversations on the exhibition floor.
Attendee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with sample comments including:
“An excellent showcase of different companies and talent doing brilliant work in the offshore wind sector with fantastic support from multiple groups.”
“Spotlight is the event in the calendar for all things offshore wind supply chain.”
“Paving the future of Offshore Wind and Innovation together.”
We are hugely encouraged that new sponsors have already been in contact, seeking to partner with us for The UK Offshore Wind Supply Chain 2025 Spotlight event and we’ve already started work on how we can further elevate the experience.
For more information on how you can become involved with the 2025 Spotlight showcase event, please contact our Marketing team – either Vicki Sharpe, vicki.sharpe@ore.catapult.org.uk – or events@ore.catapult.org.uk.
