PES caught up with Hans Gatzemeier, Managing Director, ELA Container Offshore GmbH, to ask him about their temporary accommodation solutions. These are availbale for sale or rent and standardised modules can be customised to fit various requirements. Crew comfort and safety are paramount.
PES: Welcome back to PES Wind magazine, it’s great to talk with you again. For the benefit of our new readers would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of the ELA Container Offshore GmbH and the importance of the offshore wind industry to you?
Hans Gatzemeier: Thank you for the warm welcome! In a nutshell: ELA Container Offshore GmbH is a supplier of temporary accommodation solutions for the offshore market. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Lower Saxony, Germany and we are a young and fast growing company. Since our last meeting, our team has grown to 23 highly motivated professionals and at the end of last year we moved into our brand new production facilities in Haren, Ems.
Our core business is supplying temporary offshore accommodation solutions and we are enjoying a high demand from all offshore markets. The offshore wind industry has developed into a very successful segment for us and we have been working with customers across all tiers of the market. We have a massive pipeline of projects being tendered for, on a global scale, and it is clear that offshore wind is here to stay.
Offshore renewables have proven to be a sustainable business model and the technological innovations such as ‘power-to-gas’ and battery technology will only increase the performance of offshore renewables. We are confident that they will be a, or maybe the, realistic alternative to fossil fuels on a global scale.
PES: We would like to know more about your offshore container solutions. We know that you supply both standard and customised options but what does this mean, what are the differences?
HG: We offer our container solutions for rental and sale, depending on the customers wishes. The differences between rental and sale couldn’t be bigger. In the rental market, particularly when dealing with the offshore market, timeframes are short and can be very ad-hoc. To allow for the quick turnarounds and short notice mobilisations, availability is critical, which is why we have taken a standardised approach to our rental fleet.
We have designed three different container types for our fleet, each geared towards a particular market segment. At the heart of each product range, there is a standardized basic module that has all key systems and services pre-installed. By adding specific interior features and furniture, we can quickly create bespoke solutions using standard equipment.
When we are talking about the sale option however, there are literally no limits to what we can do and the customer truly is king. We can modify existing CSC or DNV containers, we can modify one of our rental modules or we can build a 100% bespoke solution from the ground up. All done in-house in our brand-new facility in Haren, Ems.
So the two couldn’t be more different really, but all in a day’s work!
