Renewable Energy: Garrad Hassan Joins Germanischer Lloyd

HAMBURG, Germany and BRISTOL, England - Garrad Hassan (GH), based in Bristol (UK), is joining Germanischer Lloyd (GL) to form a fully integrated technical assurance and consulting company for renewable energy.

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The companies will merge to become a worldwide leading independent provider of consulting, engineering, turbine design, certification, measurement, project management, strategic advice, inspection services and software products for renewable energies. GH and GL will provide technical services over the entire life cycle of wind, solar, marine and other renewable energies, both onshore and offshore including safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.

“The merger of GH and GL is a reflection of growing demand of customers for a single service provider who offers solutions for challenges in technology, environment and asset performance on a worldwide scale”, said Pekka Paasivaara, Member of the Executive Board of GL, at a press conference in Hamburg on Wednesday. “Together, we will offer a unique level of service expertise and global presence across the whole project lifecycle.”

GH and GL will form a business segment dedicated to renewable energy of over 600 staff with highly qualified engineers and technical experts at 34 locations around the world. GL had already acquired the Canadian wind energy consulting and engineering company Hélimax and the German company WINDTEST who are experts on measurements for wind turbines and wind farms. In addition, the offshore wind expertise of Noble Denton particularly in project management for offshore windfarms was added to the GL Group in April 2009.

GL is pursuing a full service approach, with a broad range of consulting services including the optimal design of wind farms, improvement in the performance of existing wind farms, measurement projects (wind resource, wind turbine performance and structural behaviour), inspection and certification of turbines. GH offers comprehensive engineering and consulting together with a large array of software products and turbine design services. Together GH and GL are at the forefront of developing a new greener and more sustainable energy mix for the world.

“GH is delighted to be merging with GL. We have considered many potential partners but we have chosen GL because we share the same values of independence and technical rigour. Both companies have worked for 25 years together and hence know that this combination will be successful. It brings benefits to our clients and employees alike. We are now able to provide an even more comprehensive service offering with access to more engineers and this will enable us to enter developing markets,” explained Andrew Garrad, CEO Garrad Hassan, who will be the president of the new combined renewables business.

About Germanischer Lloyd

Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is an international technical assurance and consulting company and ship classification society. The company employs more than 6,400 engineers, surveyors, and experts of various professions. GL’s global network consists of more than 200 locations in 80 countries.

GL provides assurance, inspection, and consulting as well as project management on a worldwide scale for the energy industries. The technical and consulting services focus along the entire life cycle of oil and gas - upstream, midstream, and downstream - renewables and energy installations onshore and offshore including safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.

In the Renewables business segment GL provides technical expertise to all players in the expanding renewable energy markets around the world, especially wind, including certification, measurements as well as consulting and engineering.

In the Oil & Gas business segment GL’s range of services extends to project consulting for oil and gas production, storage, subsea technology, LNG terminals, pipeline engineering as well as gas, electricity and water distribution networks. This is complemented with the corresponding software solutions and consulting services for installation performance, maintenance and process control.

GL, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, has a dedicated growth strategy, both organic and by acquisition. In April 2009, Noble Denton, a provider of life cycle marine and offshore engineering services, joined GL.

As a classification society, GL offers its services to ship owners, shipyards, the maritime supply industry and 130 flag states. GL’s fleet in service passed the 80 million gross tons threshold in April 2009. More than 6,870 ships are currently surveyed on a regular basis by GL.

This press release is available at www.gl-group.com.

Pressekontakt: Germanischer Lloyd Corporate Communications, Dr Olaf Mager and Stefanie Normann-Birkholz, Tel. +49(0)40-36149-4509, Fax +49(0)40-36149-250, pr@gl-group.com.

Source: Germanischer Lloyd

Pressekontakt: Germanischer Lloyd Corporate Communications, Dr Olaf Mager and Stefanie Normann-Birkholz, Tel. +49(0)40-36149-4509, Fax +49(0)40-36149-250, pr at gl-group.com.