MEMBER NEWS: Rovco and Vaarst merge to accelerate high-tech wind offering under new brand: Beam

September 16, 2024
MEMBER NEWS: Rovco and Vaarst merge to accelerate high-tech wind offering under new brand: Beam

High-technology offshore wind companies, Rovco and Vaarst, have today announced their merger under a new brand – Beam.global. In uniting their industry leading capabilities across research, development, and deployment, Beam provides an unrivalled offering in cutting-edge automation technologies. Through its mission to automate offshore wind, these innovations deliver
efficiencies and reduced costs for survey and subsea work across all lifecycle stages.

Rovco and Vaarst have been at the forefront of developing and deploying AI and autonomy enabled services in the offshore wind sector. Under the unified Beam brand, this shared mission continues, with the goal of helping offshore wind become more reliable, efficient, and cost-effective – improving its commercial viability compared to oil and gas.

The cutting-edge technologies that have made Rovco and Vaarst industry technology leaders in the survey and subsea sector remain at the core of the new brand offering. Beam builds on their combined years of AI driven operational expertise and focuses on industry-defining R&D and transformative partnerships to deliver new industry leading innovations.

Rovco was founded by Brian Allen in 2016, with technology spin-off Vaarst later launched by Allen in 2021. The decision to unite the companies under one name follows several years of rapid growth and will support future technological ambitions. Allen will continue in the CEO role at Beam, with the merger of the two companies creating a combined workforce of over 200 employees.

Beam is set for further expansion in the coming year, hiring over 150 new employees across the UK in a variety of high-technology roles at its Bristol, Aberdeen and Edinburgh offices. Global growth will also see Beam recruit an additional 50 positions in other global markets, including 25 in the US and 10 in Asia.

Brian Allen, CEO of Beam, stated: “Piecemeal policy making, supply chain issues and the rising workforce shortage have created hurdles in the green energy transition and fuelled a continued reliance on oil and gas. It’s never been more important to find ways to cut costs and project timelines. This merger under a united brand makes Beam the only company in the world with a unique combination of subsea AI, computer vision, sonar and autonomous advanced robotics. Our mission is to deliver real world impact in the offshore wind industry by making it cost competitive with oil and gas, which is a pivotal step in ending the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

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AREG is the original energy transition organisation, working on behalf of members to empower the energy supply chain and champion its expertise. Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to find out more about membership.

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AREG has played an important role in the growth of Scotland’s renewable energy sector, engaging the supply chain and developing the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. However, we are only at the very beginning of the transition that AREG was established to both lead and support so there are still opportunities for companies to get into the constantly evolving renewables supply chain. We look forward to continuing our work together as renewables builds on its place as Scotland’s main source of power, and as we seek to deliver real change in the crucial areas of heat and transport.

Scottish Renewables
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Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce has worked closely with AREG since its formation. The recent progress in the developments of offshore wind projects by Equinor and Vattenfall are as a result of the work of the group over many years. The north-east is known as the oil and gas capital of Europe. At the Chamber, we believe the region must evolve its position to being recognised as the energy capital. Whilst hydrocarbons will continue to be essential in driving our economy for years to come, the generation of renewable resources will play an increasingly important role in providing cost-effective power, innovative development and economic growth.

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
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The enthusiasm and dedication of the early group that would become AREG was fundamental in us choosing to launch All-Energy in Aberdeen. The first tiny show was held in 2001, and AREG’s Chairman at the time, Jeremy Cresswell, played such an active role that I often describe him in terms such as All-Energy’s ‘midwife’. All-Energy is now the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference in terms of number of attendees, space booked, and number of exhibiting companies. As AREG became firmly established, their presence and support for the event grew spectacularly over the years. We thank them most sincerely for their invaluable input.

All-Energy
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Vattenfall has forged a strong working relationship with AREG through the development of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. AREG has worked tirelessly on behalf of the North East and it can take enormous credit for the growth of sustainable energy in the region and the path it has cleared for the region to capture further investment.

Vattenfall
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Aberdeen City and Shire is emerging as a key location for renewables by successfully transferring its world-class oil and gas expertise into the sector and AREG has done much to advance this through a broad range of initiatives. It has acted as a catalyst in driving further investment in the local economy by engaging with companies, Government, public bodies and existing projects and we have been pleased to support their efforts. Scottish Enterprise will continue to engage with AREG as we increase Scotland’s use of renewable energy.

Scottish Enterprise