Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2021)

OFFSHORE WIND FLOATING WIND

Photos courtesy Stiesdal

Ports at Leith and Peterhead have announced major redevelop- portunities in ? oating offshore wind, from design through to ments to accommodate ? oating offshore wind projects, with manufacturing and O&M.

Peterhead also signing an agreement with partners Falck Re- In the US, state bills in California and Oregon are spur- newables and BlueFLoat Energy, to look at construction and ring activity. Oregon is looking at a 3GW by 2030 target and

O&M options for ? oating projects. Forth Ports has announced wants to coordinate port activity. California, likewise, has laid £40 million investment in its Edinburgh site, including dredg- out a road map for port infrastructure. The Port of Humboldt ing, to accommodate ? oating turbine construction and O&M. Bay (the largest deepwater port between San Francisco and

Developer BW Ideol has also agreed a partnership with Ar- Coos Bay, Oregon) is targeting $55 million spending on an dersier Port Authority for building concrete ? oaters. If suc- infrastructure development program to support offshore wind, cessful with its ScotWind bid, TotalEnergies has pledged cash including an all-electric heavy lift terminal, while a site in Or- towards enhancing ports and harbor infrastructure in Orkney egon, which had been earmarked for an LNG facility, is now and Caithness, in Scotland. The NextGen consortium (Aker being assessed to support ? oating offshore wind instead, says

Offshore Wind and Ocean Winds) announced plans to create Jamie MacDonald, Director of Operations (Boston), at Xodus a new fabrication yard, if they win their ScotWind bids. Op- Group. It might not be long until ports supporting ? oating off- erators of the NIgg facility in the Cromarty Firth and Dundee shore wind are also considering landing hydrogen from those are also planning expansion. You get the picture – there’s no wind farms, potentially.

end of activity to capture ? oating wind work in Scotland – al- Lanard says that, after four years of stagnation – partly though a lot rides on winning bids. due to US military concerns about use of west coast waters

But the action is not just in Scotland. The UK govern- – there’s now momentum in this area, with the Biden admin- ment has announced a £160 million funding pot for ports istration, via BOEM, planning lease rounds in California and and factories for large-scale ? oating offshore wind build- Oregon in 2022 and 2023, respectively. out. In Spain, Capital Energy has signed two memorandums But pressure on ports will not just be about assembly and of understanding (MoUs) with the Astican and Zamakona marshalling. Operators are already thinking about operations shipyards in the Canary Islands to provide facilities for the and maintenance (O&M) strategies for their new ? oating development of ? oating offshore wind projects. In Taiwan, wind parks. “If we’re currently thinking that the turbines are partnerships are also being built to further ? oating projects. going to be needed to be towed back to port for maintenance

Flotation Energy, for example, agreed an MOU with China and major component repair, then that’s going to be a con? ict

Ship Building Corporation to explore local supply chain op- with the use of port,” says McLean. “If we’ve got some ports 22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • December 2021

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