Port of Cromarty Firth moves to become floating offshore wind hub

Port of Cromarty Firth in Scotland has signed a letter of intent with French company IDEOL in a bid to see the port become a hub for floating offshore wind.

IDEOL plans to use the port’s land and berthing sites to establish a concrete hull serial manufacturing yard for incoming floating wind tenders.

IDEOL and offshore wind farm developer Elicio have teamed up to submit proposals for the ScotWind tender, which has a pipeline of development predicted to be worth over £26bn ($34.5m) in the first round of 10GW development sites.

Bob Buskie, chief executive of Port of Cromarty Firth, commented: “This partnership shows the vital manufacturing role the Port can play in the rapid expansion in renewable projects off Scotland’s shores. We have some of the best marine resources in the world and are in close proximity to around 14 of the 15 areas identified in the Crown Estate Scotland’s marine plan for offshore wind development. This agreement is a significant boost to the long-term future of the Port, Invergordon and the Highlands, as it looks to capitalise on the transformation of the energy market from oil and gas to renewables.”

Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of Ideol, added: “This agreement is testament to our vision to build our floaters as close as possible to the offshore installation sites and in close collaboration with the local communities. We have demonstrated such high local content track record in France and Japan and do not see any reason why we could not reiterate such success stories in Scotland.”