BW Ideol AS, a global leader in offshore floating wind, and Associated British Ports (ABP), the largest port operator in the UK, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to investigate the feasibility of serialised production of concrete substructures for floating offshore wind turbine foundations based on the BW Ideol design at ABP’s port of Port Talbot.
This agreement has been signed in preparation for the forthcoming Celtic Sea leasing round announced by The Crown Estate offering a market of significant multi-GW development potential. Port Talbot at ca. 120-140 km from the Project Development Areas currently outlined by The Crown Estate is ideally located as a manufacturing base for BW Ideol’s leading technology.
Port Talbot is the only port in the Celtic Sea with the scale – both in terms of marine and brownfield land space availability – and technical capabilities to fully maximise the Celtic Sea supply chain opportunity and the jobs and prosperity benefits that it should produce.
ABP is the owner and operator of the port at Port Talbot and 20 other ports around the United Kingdom. ABP has the ambition to invest over £500 million to transform Port Talbot into a major Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) hub. It would act as a ‘hub’ for a wider network of ports. The investment is part of its sustainability strategy, ‘Ready for Tomorrow’ launched earlier in 2023, which sets out plans for ABP and partners to invest £2 billion into decarbonising its own operations by 2040 and supporting large-scale green energy infrastructure and industrial decarbonisation projects.