RWE is proud to announce its sponsorship of a space within the Teesside Women in Engineering Scholarship programme, recently launched by Teesside University.
RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind Farm has developed a strong relationship with Teesside University, and has worked together on a number of initiatives designed to attract students into a career in the offshore industry, under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Teesside University. This includes the annual blade inspection challenge, as part of students Foundation Year of their Engineering Degree. This MoU between the two organisations includes curriculum development, offering student mentoring and internships, sponsoring directed study projects and taking part in university careers fairs and events.
Teesside University identified a significant underrepresentation of women in engineering as a whole with Engineering UK suggesting just 16.5% of engineering roles were occupied by women in 2021. The Women in Engineering Scholarship programme is aimed at attracting more women to study an engineering-related degree, with a view to creating a more diverse talent pipeline for current and future industries in Tees Valley.
Matthew Swanwick, Sofia’s Project Director said: “In recognition of International Women in Engineering Day, we are delighted to announce a new scholarship at Teesside University, aimed at supporting women in their pursuit of engineering degrees. RWE benefits enormously from the many capable and talented women we have working here. We think it’s essential to do what we can to increase the number of women in engineering and are hugely supportive of this initiative.”
Alongside the partnership with Teesside University, the Sofia Offshore Wind development team has devised an education programme to support the offshore wind industry’s long-term recruitment goals, building the workforce needed tomorrow by partnering with education providers today. The programme includes the Champions for Wind project and working with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council’s on delivering their ‘Building our Future primary school’ programme.
The Sofia Wind Farm, currently under construction on Dogger Bank, 195 kilometres from the nearest point on the UK’s north east coast, will comprise 100 Siemens Gamesa 14 megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbines. These turbines include recyclable blades on 44 of the turbines, each standing 252 metres tall with a rotor diameter of 222 metres. Sofia will have a single offshore converter platform and the electricity generated will be transported to landfall 220 kilometres away at Redcar, Teesside.
Upon its commissioning in 2026, the Sofia project will have a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts , enough to power the equivalent of 1.2 million typical UK homes. The Sofia team is currently installing the 100 foundations across the 593km² array, with operations and maintenance activities set to be based at RWE’s new offshore wind operations base, ‘Grimsby Hub’. This hub already supports RWE’s Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm and will support other projects, including Sofia, in future.
