Global Energy Group is preparing to unveil over 2,000 feet of fresh quay at its base in Nigg Bay as ports all along the east coast get ready for a step-change in the offshore wind sector.
Steve Thompson, business development director at Global, will tell Scotland’s largest offshore wind conference in Aberdeen on Tuesday [27 JANUARY] that the extra quayside space will provide services for the renewables industry.
Global bought the former oil rig yard at Nigg Bay on the Cromarty Firth in 2011 and has signed a memorandum of understanding with Moray Offshore Renewables, which plans to erect wind turbines in the firth.
Further north, the harbour at Wick has been selected as the operations and maintenance hub for the Beatrice offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth.
Mr Thompson said: “Nigg is now ready to be Scotland’s first renewables hub, and is ideally-placed to support the construction of the Beatrice offshore wind farm and other Scottish offshore developments, including those in the Forth and Tay area.”
On the other side of the Moray Firth, the 400-acre Port of Ardersier, near Nairn, has plans in place to carry out major dredging work, with the harbour poised to open to the renewables industry later this year.
Steve Gobbi, chief executive at the port, said: “There are few, if any, vacant sites of this scale in the northern North Sea offering deep water access and the potential to undertake manufacturing, assembly, operations, maintenance and decommissioning from a single location.”
Further south, Eyemouth Harbour Trust in Berwickshire is gearing up for the arrival of the Neart na Gaoithe, Inch Cape and Seagreen offshore wind farms.
More than 800 delegates are expected to attend next week’s two-day offshore wind supply chain conference, which has been organised by trade body Scottish Renewables.
Hannah Smith, policy manager at the organisation, said: “Last year saw consent granted for every commercial offshore wind project in Scotland, and with work already moving forward on some of those schemes, supply chain opportunities are beginning to ramp up.
“The ports and harbours of the North of Scotland have long realised they are ideally-placed to service the five offshore wind projects planned for Scottish waters.”
For more oil and gas news click here.
Recommended for you
