A £50 million private investment in infrastructure at the Port of Leith has been announced after having secured its largest ever offshore wind contract, the delivery of the 1.1 gigawatt (GW) Inch Cape offshore wind farm.
This latest investment in infrastructure at the Port of Leith will enhance the port’s marine access, infrastructure and vessel assets and includes plant and equipment that will be used to deliver Inch Cape.
Forth Ports’ agreement with Inch Cape, to be sited off the Angus coast, will utilise the port operator’s bespoke facilities and expertise at newly created renewable energy hubs at both the Port of Leith and Port of Dundee.
“Our strategy is to create and build the renewables hubs ahead of market demand and we have achieved this in Dundee and Leith," commented Stuart Wallace, Chief Executive Officer, Forth Ports.
"Coupled with other specialist facilities delivered by Forth Projects, this creates an unrivalled prime position for Forth Ports to deliver large offshore wind projects."
Forth Projects, Forth Ports’ in-house logistics division, will handle Inch Cape’s monopile and jacket foundations at the Port of Leith. The specialist pre-assembly and marshalling of the wind farm’s 72 turbines, comprising 72 nacelles, 216 blades and 72 towers, will be undertaken by Vestas in the Port of Dundee.
Once completed in 2027, Inch Cape, one of Scotland’s largest offshore wind farms, is expected to generate enough green energy to power half of Scotland’s homes.
It will feature Vestas 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the tallest ever deployed in Scottish waters at a height of 274 metres, and a new onshore substation now under construction on the brownfield site of the former Cockenzie Power Station, East Lothian.