A Northumberland engineering firm is set to build a specialist machine that will help connect Europe’s growing offshore wind farms to national power grids.
Osbit has secured a major contract with Belgian offshore construction company Jan De Nul Group for a shallow water trencher, which will be designed in Northumberland and built at the company’s Build and Test facility at the Port of Blyth.
Machine will bury cables beneath the seabed
The trencher will be used on offshore wind farm campaigns across Europe and beyond. Its job will be to bury high-voltage power cables to depths of up to five metres below the seabed, helping transfer renewable electricity safely and efficiently.
It can move between subsea and land trenching without operator intervention, allowing cables to be installed across complex nearshore environments.
The technology is expected to support the development of the North Sea’s wind potential and the delivery of clean energy to homes and businesses across Europe.
North East businesses set to benefit
The project will bring further investment to North East supply chains, with local manufacturers and specialist suppliers contributing to the production of key components.
It also adds to Osbit’s expansion at the Port of Blyth. The company opened its dedicated Build and Test facility in early 2025 and is planning further growth to handle an increasing pipeline of large offshore energy projects.
That expansion is expected to create new high-quality engineering and manufacturing jobs across the region through 2027 and beyond, strengthening Northumberland’s role in the offshore renewable technology sector.
Delivery planned for 2026
The trencher is currently in detailed design at Osbit’s headquarters in Riding Mill. It is scheduled to be delivered from Blyth in late 2026, before beginning commercial operations on its first campaign in early 2027.
Osbit director Phil Pennington said the company’s links with North East suppliers, combined with the region’s industrial heritage, provided “exceptional manufacturing capability”.
He added that projects of this kind brought investment and highly skilled jobs while showing young people the opportunities available through science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
