Al Dennis

About Al Dennis

Al has experience in many sectors of structural engineering, giving him a broad foundation of knowledge. Building on a background of delivering highly coordinated and often challenging building structural and civil structural designs he has focused on delivering offshore wind projects since 2012.

Education and early career

After graduating from Nottingham University Al started his career with Arup as a structural engineer designing buildings. After over a decade of buildings work he moved to Arup’s energy team to work, again for over a decade, on a variety of offshore wind projects alongside input to some civil structures projects that needed his expertise.  

Professional Experience

Al’s experience in offshore wind started with the development of Arup, Costain and Hochtief’s WTG concrete gravity base concept called Gravitas. Through this work he met many developer teams, created a patent and also developed the plans for a fabrication facility.

After Gravitas Al continued to work on offshore wind design projects, typically at early development stages. These included both WTG and offshore substation – AC and DC – substructures. Alongside delivering designs he was also a technical advisor on offshore substations to clients considering bidding to operate OFTO assets.

For periods between consultancy projects Al was seconded into developer teams as a substructures package lead engineer. This has given him experience of the risks and drivers across all packages of the delivery of an offshore wind farm and how substructures fit into the wider project.

Why offshore wind?

“Offshore wind is in the centre of a Venn diagram of things I like to do: exploring and solving engineering challenges, reducing our impact on the planet, working in a collaborative team environment, and working in an industry that has lots of innovation. This is my ‘happy place’.”