Offshore staff
LONDON — The Floating Wind Offshore Wind (FLOW) Taskforce says up to 11 ports around the UK will need to be transformed into new industrial hubs to allow for scale-up of floating offshore wind.
Its latest report lists recommendations on actions needed for 34 GW of floating wind capacity to be installed in UK waters by 2040.
The FLOW Taskforce includes the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments, the Northern Ireland Executive, major offshore wind and port developers, The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland, RenewableUK, Scottish Renewables, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and others.
Floating wind farms can be built in deeper waters, further from the coast, where wind speeds are higher. But for the UK to scale up, the report recommends investing £4 billion ($4.84 billion) in ports to prepare them for mass floating wind deployment by the end of this decade.
The upgrades would allow turbines with hub heights taller than 150 m and their floating bases to be manufactured and assembled in coastal locations. Initially, the focus should be on ports in Scotland and the Celtic Sea off west Wales and south-west England where floating projects are currently being planned.
A minimum of three to five ports will be needed in Scotland to install turbines on the floating bases, the report added, with a further two ports needed to service the Celtic Sea industry.
Four more UK ports would require investments for manufacturing steel and concrete components for floating foundation, along with more ships and bigger cranes.
