Look out for UFOs

2 February 2021

The construction of renewable energy infrastructure is creating demand for Kooi, a Netherlands-based supplier of remote CCTV and security monitoring facilities.

Founded ten years ago by Pieter Kooi (pronounced ‘koy’), the organisation serves several European countries and established a UK presence two years ago, with its head office in Manchester and a southern office in Slough.

Andrew Ashworth, the company’s UK and Ireland country manager, says that work involved in building wind and solar farms, green energy installations, associated ground works and civil engineering activity is creating a need for site security systems, particularly in remote areas.

“For example, we are supplying equipment to contractors working on the Dogger Bank Wind Farm project, located more than 80 miles off the north east coast of England. It requires many miles of onshore cabling to be laid.

“Our CCTV systems are easily re-locatable with forklift slots, so they can be repositioned as work progresses. And it is much more cost-effective than employing many security guards over a large area.”

Kooi’s main product is the imaginatively named UFO (unit for observation) which has a camera and motion detectors. It sends information to the company’s remote monitoring centre and personnel can trigger alarms, issue voice alerts, call emergency services and take other appropriate action if necessary.

The UFOs are battery-powered and designed for long running times. Hybrid variants are also available for autonomous operation.

Kooi can hire and re-hire the machines, and the company says that interest is growing in other markets such as general construction and bridge building.

Andrew says that the pandemic has been somewhat double-edged in terms of its impact. “When the first lockdown was announced, some sites shut down and cleared everything, including CCTV, while others needed to install surveillance equipment until they could re-open.”

So if you see a UFO on a work site, it is nothing to worry about - unless you are where you shouldn’t be.