On Thursday 25th 2024 of January Belgian Offshore Cluster (BOC) and T-shore welcomed over 100 guests in Bluebridge in Ostend. The offshore renewable industry was represented by more than 60 companies including: the Belgian windfarms owners, turbine developers, O&M companies, service suppliers, training suppliers, the Belgian navy, …
Erwin Leys, the new President of BOC, presented Offshore Wind International, the joint venture between BOC and Kortrijk Xpo. This new organisation wants to expand the Belgian offshore wind trade fair organisation in Belgium and abroad. A sincere word of thanks was sent to the Honorary Chairman, Christophe Dhaene for his work during the past years.
BOC offers a fascinating programme for 2024. They will particpate in 5 international fairs: KEY Offshore Wind Summit in Rimini, Italy; IPF in New Orleans, US; Seanergy in Nantes, France; WindEnergy Hamburg, Germany and Energy Taiwan.
From 27 – 28 March, the fair & conference Belgian Offshore Days takes place in Ostend and comes with a new fair design.
The second topic of the program was about the skills & workforce in the offshore renewable energy industry. A hot topic where every company in our business is concerned with. That is the reason why POM West-Vlaanderen stepped into the T-shore project. Laure Martroye presented the result of an in-depth questioning about needed skills and training infrastucture.
In order to build a sustainable collaboration between education institutions and the industry, Marie Van Looveren, general director of Syntra West and Erwin Leys signed a Memorandum of Understanding. By signing this MoU, BOC becomes a part of the CoVe (Centre of Vocational Excellence) and will contribute to: new training programs, students exchange, international train-the-trainer programs, …
Finally, the participants could experience the training modules in The Reef, the Training Lab Blue Energy, also based in Bluebridge. It was the perfect moment to announce the partnership between The Reef and RelyOnNutec. RelyOnNutec has state-of-the-art technology to provide a variety of safety training courses. Now they are also diving into the world of virtual reality, offering GWO Lift User training at The Reef.