Crown Estate supports floating offshore wind hub plan for South Wales port

Tugdock and Sarens have secured funding from The Crown Estate for their project to develop a heavy-lift operations and maintenance (O&M) hub at ABP’s Port of Port Talbot in South Wales.

With support from ABP, RWE and others, the aim is to create a facility that can support the heavy-lift equipment need for future floating offshore wind projects in the Celtic Sea offshore western Britain.

Port of Port Talbot’s position close to the sea would allow the hub to reduce transit times to projects and operational costs for maintenance, assembly and logistics.

Support for the development came through Crown Estate’s Supply Chain Accelerator, a recently established £50 million ($63.8 million) fund to help speed up and de-risk early-stage creation of UK supply chain projects to service the offshore wind sector.

Sarens specializes in crane rental services, heavy lifting and engineered transport. Tugdock has developed submersible platforms for offshore transport and logistics; these are constructed from modular, road-transportable steel space frames with inflatable Tugdock buoyancy units (TBUs).

The TBUs are filled with compressed air and can be inflated or deflated to provide buoyancy, stability and control for load-outs, floating, submerging and lifting.

Through confining the TBUs into a space frame configuration and deck arrangement, Tugdock says they can be used as additional buoyancy modules or as submersible platforms measuring up to 120 x 120 m. 

It is also a lighter and more cost-effective alternative to a steel-hulled barges, floating docks or large port infrastructure developments, the company claims.

Lucas Lowe Houghton, Tugdock's chief revenue officer, said, “We aim to unlock local steel and concrete manufacturing by offering a range of solutions for assembly, loadout and launching.”

Carl Sarens, Sarens director of global operations, technical solutions and engineering, added, “The Sarens and Tugdock O&M hub will provide a wide range of services including heavy lifting equipment such as cranes and TSPs, assembly areas, storage, training and consultancy. This all-encompassing service model reduces the need for clients to engage multiple contractors, simplifying project management and reducing overall costs.”