Plan unveiled for £110m Scottish wind-tower factory
The UK’s largest offshore wind tower manufacturing facility is set to be built at Port of Nigg in northern Scotland.
Scottish energy services company Global Energy Group has agreed terms with offshore wind tower manufacturing specialist, Haizea Wind, to build a £110 million-plus (€129 million-plus) tubular rolling facility.
The 450 metres long, 38,000 m2 Nigg Offshore Wind (Now) factory. The factory will be capable of rolling steel plate to supply towers that will weigh in excess of 1,000 tonnes each to the offshore fixed and floating wind industry in the UK and abroad.
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The UK government has committed to 40GW of installed offshore capacity by 2030, bringing overall UK wind capacity to over 50GW. At the current size of turbines used in the market, that means the UK needs more than 3,000 towers to reach the target.
However, the UK currently does not have a factory capable of producing towers to the specification required for future planned projects by leading fixed and floating developers.
The Port of Nigg rolling facility will be capable of producing up to 135 towers per year as well as other structures for the offshore wind industry such as transition pieces, suction buckets and bespoke tubular structures for the floating offshore wind market in the UK and abroad.
The cost of the new facility, inclusive of rolling machinery robotics and a new blast and paint shop is between £110m and £120m.
The new factory is intended to be an enabler to establish the Port of Nigg as a strategic offshore wind hub, including the consolidation of the Port’s existing marshalling and staging work for turbine components and foundations. The marshalling and staging work already employs over 120 people.
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The facility has been designed to supply towers and other large tubular components suitable for both the fixed and floating offshore wind markets.
Whilst the initial contracts for tower supply will focus on UK domestic supply, it is anticipated that the factory will be in high demand for export of towers and other products as well due to the rapid rate of planned offshore wind deployment across Europe up until 2050.
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