Award-winning PR and communications agency Pier has won a competitive tender to provide Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm with stakeholder communication services.

Pier will support the project’s in-house team to successfully manage communications with local residents, communities, key groups and organisations across the east coast. Using Pier’s local knowledge and wealth of experience in the offshore renewables sector, the team will support the management of stakeholder relations, events and media relations for the proposed development which, once completed, is expected to provide in excess of 300MW of clean green energy.

Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm is the sister project of the existing £1.5 billion, 353MW Galloper Wind Farm, 30km off the coast of Suffolk. The development of the wind farm is being led by RWE Renewables UK on behalf of the project partners.  Currently in the early stages of development, Five Estuaries is expected to take in the region of 10 years to develop and construct, prior to it becoming fully operational, should planning consent be granted.

Five Estuaries Project Manager, Umair Patel said: “Pier’s depth of experience in the local offshore wind industry will be invaluable as we take forward the extension project to Galloper, Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm. We are particularly delighted to have been able to appoint an east coast company. Similarly to the Galloper wind farm, we expect the Five Estuaries project to create local jobs and investment and we are particularly delighted to have been able to appoint Pier, a Felixstowe based company. 

“Pier will support our activity liaising with local and regional stakeholders, organising events relating to the project and gathering as much feedback as possible to guide the project as it progresses over the next few years.”

Kate Bowden Smith, managing director at Pier, said: “This is an exciting win for Pier and really plays to our strengths. We can’t wait to start working with the Five Estuaries team on this nationally significant offshore wind project, which has the potential to aid the UK in achieving its renewable energy targets including to hit net zero by 2050.

“Our knowledge of the local region and community outlook, as well as the wider UK energy sector, means we can plan and implement a robust stakeholder engagement campaign. We will be working closely with local communities, local councils and other interested parties throughout the pre-application stage of the project to ensure all views are taken into consideration as plans evolve.”

Pier is a fully integrated PR and communications agency with strong expertise in the energy and offshore wind sector. In addition to RWE, the renewables division at Pier works with a raft of clients including ScottishPower Renewables, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the Energy Systems Catapult, and operations and maintenance specialist GEV Wind Power.

Find out more about the proposed Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm here.