On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the association IRO, which represents the interests of Dutch suppliers in the Offshore Energy Industry, a book will be published on 1 December: ‘Won from the Waves. The Dutch offshore industry, a pioneer in energy transition’. In this book, Joke Korteweg and Frits Loomeijer describe the fascinating development of the Dutch offshore industry, which has been one of the top five in the world for fifty years.
This position is due to a strong cluster of suppliers. Innovative companies are commissioned by the major energy companies to build, transport, maintain and clean up platforms, transformer stations and wind turbines after use. They play an important role in the current energy transition, which is largely being realised at sea.
‘Won from the Waves’ describes how this industry operates with a lot of courage and technical ingenuity in a critical social and political climate. Hence the subtitle ‘Pioneer in Energy Transition’. During the research it turned out that the sector, however diverse it may be, was able to respond to factors such as the energy transition. Initially this transition started from coal to oil and gas, then from oil and gas to sustainable energy. Offshore companies often take on the pioneering role, although this is not always visible for outsiders. This book sheds a new light on this socially relevant sector through lines that are extended from the past to the present and the future.
‘Won from the Waves’ or in Dutch ‘Wagen en Winnen’ is available at bookshops.