U.K. Port to Receive £400 Million Marine Energy Park

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The U.K. looks increasingly likely to become the global hub for offshore energy following the announcement by Able UK (Billingham, England) that it intends to build a £400 million ($604 million) marine energy centre at the South Humber Gateway.

The company aims to develop the south bank of the Humber into a park comprising a mile-long quay, purpose-built facilities for the construction of offshore wind turbines and the construction of an on-site biomass plant capable of generating enough electricity for up to 500,000 homes. The Humber Port is well-positioned for many of the next generation, or Round 3, offshore windfarms that will be built in the coming decade.

Able UK is the latest in a growing line of companies hoping to exploit the U.K.'s massive wind energy potential. In March, Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany) announced plans to invest £80 million ($121 million) in the country to build a production plant in the northeast of England for offshore wind turbines. For related news, see March 30, 2010, article - Siemens Picks U.K. For £80 Million Wind Turbine Plant. Also in March, rival General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut) announced plans to spend more than £98 million ($148 million) to build an offshore wind manufacturing plant in the U.K.

"There's absolutely massive potential for the U.K. in the renewable energy sector," said Able UK's founder and executive chairman, Peter Stephenson. "It's very similar to the original 1970s and 1980s oil and gas boom, with figures being talked about in excess of £100 billion ($150 billion)."

Stephenson said that most land-based turbines are built in Germany and Denmark, but the almost 2,000-acre site at Humber Port will allow for the production of the much larger turbines needed for offshore windfarms. The new quay will measure 1,630 metres, and the site is well positioned for windfarm sites such as Dogger Bank, Hornsea and Norfolk Bank, which will require 5,000 turbines in total. Able UK claimed that building and delivering turbines from the new marine energy park will be cheaper than from any other U.K. or European ports.

He added: "The benefit of the facilities on the Humber is that it's a very good location central to the North Sea and the U.K. There are a lot of environmental, as well as economic benefits, to the application. A lot of companies will be working on the same site, so it should make things much safer and speed up time from the research and development stage to construction."

Earlier this year, the U.K. government announced a competition worth £60 million ($90.7 million) to modernise the country's ports in an effort to attract companies involved in building offshore windfarms. For related item, see March 25, 2010, article - U.K. Creates £2 Billion Green Investment Bank.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the wind energy, geothermal, hydroelectric, landfill gas-to-energy and utility-scale solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.