• Second year of the East Coast Energy Internship Scheme
• Student supporting the Galloper team on communications activity
• Partnership approach with Great Yarmouth firm TMS Media

Evie Read, a 17 year old student from East Norfolk Sixth Form College, has joined a major offshore wind farm project, as part of an exciting summer internship.

Evie is supporting the Galloper offshore wind farm project, as she takes part in what is the second year of the East Coast Energy Internship Scheme.   During the four week internship Evie will focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’s (STEM) related subjects, but with a focus on communications. As a result the Galloper team and local east coast media firm TMS Media have partnered up, with Evie being based from TMS Media’s Great Yarmouth office.

Toby Edmonds, Galloper Wind Farm Project Director said: “Having taken part in the East Coast Energy Internship scheme last year, we were very keen to support it again this year. However given we’re in the middle of construction our bases are at maximum capacity, so we were delighted TMS Media stepped in to host Evie from their Great Yarmouth office, where she continues to support the Galloper project on a range of communication topics. So far she’s done a super job of supporting us and clearly has a natural aptitude toward energy related subjects.”

Evie is working on a number of tasks, including supporting the Galloper project’s social media channels via Instagram and her very own blog; and developing education materials for primary and secondary age pupils. The project team and TMS Media have also collaborated on a number of site visits for Evie – including one to the Galloper Offshore Construction base in Lowestoft and another to the Siemen’s turbine assembly base in Great Yarmouth.

The East Coast Energy Internship was established in 2016 by The Royal Academy of Engineering, The Ogden Trust and Suffolk County Council in association with Waveney District Council. Since then the scheme has grown to encompass other regions including Norfolk.   Plugging the gap between work experience and apprenticeships, the internship scheme is fully funded by the Ogden Trust and provides the students with a real and meaningful placement that utilises and enhances their STEM skills in a business environment.

Intern Evie, who is from the Great Yarmouth area and is hoping to secure a place at the University of East Anglia to study Geophysics, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for me to gain some experience in the industry, and to understand all of the hard work and effort that goes into building an offshore windfarm. I’ve met some amazing people from all different areas of the project, from PR to site managers, who have inspired me to take up a career in this ever-growing industry.”

In 2016 students Felicity Levett and Joel Pointon, from Lowestoft Sixth Form College, joined the internship scheme and were based from Galloper’s Offshore Construction Coordination Base for a four-week period over the summer.

The construction of the 336MW Galloper project, which is expected to be complete by Spring 2018, is being led on behalf of the project partners by innogy SE. Once operational the project will generate enough power for up 336,000 homes.

Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using wind speeds monitored in the local area and correlating to suitable reanalysis weather data providing longer term data. The calculations are based on an installed capacity of up to 336MW. The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent or emissions savings figures may change as further data are gathered. Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4500 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household figures from the UK Statistics Authority.