Xodus Group sees further growth for renewables team - Upskilling to meet market needs

This year’s SPE Offshore Europe saw an increasing focus on a low carbon economy and the energy transition. One such company that is going through its own transition is Xodus Group. With a successful track record as an international energy consultancy, Xodus Group is expanding its renewables division to deliver an increasing number of renewables projects that the company is leading. Xodus is a founding partner in the Oil and Gas Technology Centre’s new Net Zero Solution Centre, working to introduce renewables as part of the energy mix for the oil and gas community.

Peter Tipler, who has been with Xodus Group for almost eleven years, heads up the team as the company’s renewables director.

“We believe that working on projects across the energy mix will become the norm, for everyone, across the world,” he said. “For that reason, we see our renewables division creating long-term growth opportunities for the company. And this will not only be in renewable energy generation, but in how energy is stored and accessed.

“We are well-known for our expertise in cables, particularly for expertise in environment and subsea but offshore wind is becoming a growing area for us both in the UK and internationally and we are working with several clients ahead of the upcoming Round 4 and ScotWind leasing rounds.”

Mr Tipler added: “We are seeing huge opportunities around the world. In Perth, for example, we are exploring decarbonisation of facilities, renewables for power generation and energy storage, and there is great appetite for this.

“We already see renewables projects accounting for a significant proportion of the company’s revenue and we recognise that attracting and nurturing high-calibre talent will be key to sustaining this growth.”

Growing team

Xodus recently created a dedicated renewables advisory unit. Scott Hamilton was appointed to the renewables division as principal consultant, with a focus on due diligence, supply chain analysis and techno-economic analysis.

Mr Hamilton is managing a range of commercial consultancy services to owners and developers of renewable energy assets and wider industry participants. He is also delivering commercially focused business analysis, economics and due diligence services to clients.

Recognising the increasing significance of storage within the energy mix, Xodus has also appointed a dedicated specialist who will act as the company’s hydrogen and battery storage expert.

Dr Leanne Bloor joins Xodus from ESH Services Limited, where she was director of energy storage and hydrogen services. Within this role, she specialised in consultancy and technical advisory services relating to energy storage and hydrogen industries. This included site acceptance witnessing and owner’s engineering for 260MW of constructed battery storage systems.

Previous roles have also included senior energy storage consultant at Wood, where she specialised in the technical advisory of energy storage and generation systems including battery, hydrogen, gas peaker and diesel generation.

Within this role, Dr Bloor was involved with a feasibility study for SWIFTH2, the Scottish Hydrogen Ferries project, to size the amount of renewable energy required to power hydrogen ferries.

Further growth is forecast for the multidisciplinary team, as the division targets a total of 20 energy specialists by the end of this year.

Showcasing credentials

Xodus is also stepping up involvement in several renewables-focused events.

Dr Bloor will be attending the Aberdeen Hydrogen Festival, which is part of a drive to further increase the profile of hydrogen in the city. The festival, running from 30 September to 4 October, will showcase the transition to a low carbon economy and highlight opportunities for businesses to get involved.

As part of the 2019 World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP) AGM, which was hosted in Aberdeen, Xodus was the principal sponsors of the ferry trip to Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC). The visit, organised by Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), was an opportunity for visiting delegates and AREG members to come together and discuss opportunities across the renewables supply chain.

Xodus also supported a WECP panel session focused on upskilling to meet renewables growth, sharing its views on diversity around investing in innovation, diversity in recruitment and making the work accessible to all.

Scott Hamilton will be speaking at Floating Offshore Wind UK 2019 in Aberdeen on 31 October, where the company is also an event partner.

Mr Tipler said: “Our view is that a responsible energy future provides an opportunity for all of us to break down silos and address the challenges of the energy mix across hydrocarbons, renewables and energy storage. We aren’t waiting for it to happen; we are making it happen.”