We kicked off 2024 with the appointment of our new Head of Onshore, Anthony Waslin! Anthony has over 12 years of experience in the onshore wind industry, having began his career as a Service Technician in 2011, working his way up to becoming Field Area Manager and being responsible for the entire UK operations of a major OEM.
We sat down with Anthony to find out more about how his portfolio of experience in the onshore wind industry will help take Boston Energy’s onshore services to new heights across the globe!
- Hello Anthony! To kick things off, tell us a bit about yourself!
Hi, I’m Tony, I’m from Hull originally, so just down the road from the Boston Energy Head Office in Beverley, but I have lived in Inverness for over 14 years, so the Highlands is home to me now. I moved for love and the rest is history really; I’ve been married to my wife for over 10 years now, and we have 2 children – a daughter who is 18 and a son who is 7.
Family is everything to me, and with the travelling I do for work, we live for the weekends so try to make them as fun as possible whilst our son is still young. Whether it be days at the beach or walking in the Highlands (when the weather is good, although that’s not very often up here!) swimming, football (our son is part of a local team who play/train weekly) or arts & crafts, we usually have something to keep us busy!
I am also a keen Rugby League fan, with Hull FC being my team growing up, so I do try to get to the odd game when I am in the area.
- What made you choose a career in the wind industry?
I would love to say that renewable energy was always the dream, but I fell into it by chance really. My career prior to wind was with BP at their Petrochemical plant in Hull, and when I moved to Inverness I thought something similar would be up here, but that wasn’t the case!
After job hunting with a bit of luck I found an advert for a Service Technician role with Enercon, a major OEM in the onshore wind industry and they were opening up a new Inverness hub. I had always found wind turbines interesting, so thought I would give it a try, my application was submitted and within a week had my interview and start date lined up, I stayed with Enercon 12 and a half years after that – so strange how things work out in life.
- Tell us a bit about your journey in the wind industry!
I joined Enercon in May 2011 as a Service Technician and spent the first year or so travelling the country supporting other established areas and gaining experience before Enercon fully set up the Inverness Service around 2012 – I was based there once new windfarms were under construction.
I gained Authorised Technician status in around 6 months from joining under both electrical and mechanical designation before being promoted to Team Lead in 2013. I loved my time in the field and had some fantastic teammates which really made the role for me, but in 2016 Enercon opened a new role, Field Area Manager, and so I applied and was promoted thereafter. Coming away from the tools was strange at such a young age, but it was a new role to get stuck into and make my own: managing staff, supporting customers, etc.
I covered a logistical area in Scotland for a few years, before becoming Senior Field Area Manager in 2020 and responsible for the whole of Scotland and my final role of Field Service Manager in 2021, responsible for the whole UK, in which time I also took on the role of Responsible Manager under the Wind Turbines Safety Rules, so it became a very diverse and involved role.
I am very proud of my time at Enercon and what was achieved, but also in the development and support they gave me to progress from a technician to a member of the Senior Management Team. However, a new challenge was needed by the end, and when the opportunity arose with Boston Energy, and once I learnt of the business, culture and people here, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
- How has your experience in the industry prepared you for your role at Boston Energy?
I have had various leaders and managers in my career in the industry and I have listened and learned what works, what doesn’t work and how best to get the team working together so with my various roles, and interactions with people and stakeholders, I have learnt that the best way is openness, honesty and integrity, and if these are maintained, even a negative situation can be turned around with good, honest communication.
As mentioned I have over 12.5 years working in the onshore wind industry covering multiple roles and objectives, and working with industry standards such as the Wind Turbine Safety Rules so I have a wide range of experiences, both formal and situational, and Boston Energy allows me to bring all this together and give me the responsibility to grow their onshore service line worldwide.
- Can you tell us a bit more about what is going on with the onshore services at Boston Energy?
2024 has certainly started busy with us gaining global Independent Service Provider status with a major OEM, and in progress with other OEMs/clients for multiple bodies of works across GB, EU and North America, so very much started 2024 as 2023 finished off!
The intention for us is to grow the onshore service line, across these regions, along with APAC so as the weeks and months progress, so will our workload and support services. Keep an eye on the Boston Energy LinkedIn and socials to keep up to date with all the latest news and openings!
- How do you see the global onshore wind industry and Boston Energy’s onshore operations support evolving in the next few years?
Major OEMs have such significant backlogs of works & retrofits packages, coupled with year on year increases in their orderbooks and new platform types, along with industry wide headcount and skills shortage, this affects not only the UK but the globe as a whole It is a diverse and changing market, so this means that it is more difficult than ever to fulfil contracts independently without support – this is where Boston Energy comes in.
Our goal is not to take wind farm contracts away from OEMs, but our model is to become a Service Partner/Independent Service Provider for them so that we can support by taking on managed services, maintenance & retrofit campaigns independently, ensuring their workload demand is fulfilled and as such avoid compensation pay-outs and liquidated damages to their clients.
As tenders are won, and we support the OEMs/clients we will in turn evolve and grow from the team we have currently, to a global Onshore Operations Support team and multi-brand specialist working in partnership with OEMs.
- What are you most looking forward to in your role at Boston Energy?
Boston Energy had an immensely successful 2023 across the organisation, but I aim to take the onshore services to the next level so for me the most exciting part is the change and growth, interacting not only with our company across GB, EU, US and APAC but also building close relationships with our global customers and being better suited to support them going forward.
Customers are vital to this growth, as are our technicians, they are the team in the wind and rain (and occasionally sun and snow!) and having been a technician myself, I understand the challenges of being remote, and what happens onshore etc so I want to foster a culture where technicians not only excel in their technical expertise and elevated standards of work and safety, but also grasp an understanding of the business, its goals and objectives so that as a team we can all support each other to achieve the results that both Boston Energy, and our customers expect.
Achieving, and then building on this, is what I am most looking forward to.
For more information on Boston Energy’s onshore services across the globe, head to our services page on our website!
