The development of marine renewables, including tidal energy and floating offshore wind projects, present a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Wales and ensuring our ports are ready and able to support the sector is vital.
Ports development is key to ensuring Wales becomes a leader in manufacturing, assembly, and deployment. As part of our State of the Sector 2024 report, we asked the ports of Port Talbot, Milford Haven and Mostyn to provide an update on all the work they’re doing to future-proof for renewables.
Future Proofing our Ports: Port Talbot
The UK Government has advanced the port at Port Talbot to the primary list phase of their Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS). FLOWMIS funding is the critical first step to unlock plans to develop a green economic hub at Port Talbot, supporting and creating nearly 10,000 jobs in South Wales and across the wider UK supply chain.
The deployment of floating offshore wind (FLOW) in the Celtic Sea will deliver a clean and reliable energy supply. But for Wales and Port Talbot it’s also a once- in-a-generation opportunity to establish a major manufacturing and logistics support hub, enabling an era of new low carbon reindustrialisation and regeneration across South Wales.
First mover advantage is key to grasping this opportunity and capturing the full benefits of FLOW deployment and growth. With the right policies and investment in port infrastructure, the UK can grow a FLOW centric manufacturing hub, secure clean energy provision and spark a process of wider regeneration in South Wales.
With a sheltered, deep-water harbour and large amounts of brownfield developable land, Associated British Port’s (ABP) port at Port Talbot is ideally located near the Celtic Sea leasing areas and is the natural epicentre for FLOW.
ABP is planning significant investment to ensure the site is a success and that it attracts further inward investment. Considerable progress has already been made, and the consenting process is currently being worked through, something the company says they are keen to progress over the coming year.
The port is also set to benefit from tax and customs incentives as part of the successful Celtic Freeport.
In September 2024, ABP announced the next phase of their Future Port Talbot programme, signalling the beginning of survey work both on land and in the water. Read more here.
Associated British Ports (ABP) is the UK’s leading ports group, with twenty-one ports across the UK which together handle around a quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade. Their five ports in South Wales at Swansea, Barry, Cardiff, Newport and Port Talbot are at the forefront of change.
Future Proofing our Ports: Port of Mostyn
The Port of Mostyn is located in the Dee Estuary, North Wales. Being appointed as the construction port for the first two major wind farms in U.K. waters – at North Hoyle off Prestatyn in 2002 and the Robin Rigg OWF in the Solway Firth in 2003 – makes Mostyn “the Birthplace of the U.K. offshore renewable energy sector”.
Since then, a further five projects with a total of 504 turbines have been constructed from the Port.
Over the past 12 months, Mostyn has made significant strides towards obtaining a marine works consent for the development of a new 260m deep water berth to support the larger turbines of the future.
When completed, the new berth will bring the Port’s total quay length to 680m with 30 hectares of laydown/storage land available land directly behind the berths. The design of the new berth will significantly enhance the Port’s capabilities to support both fixed and floating wind projects ensuring Mostyn continues to be at the forefront of the offshore renewable energy sector.
The Dee estuary has one of the highest tidal ranges in the U.K. – 10.1m at Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT). To take advantage of this natural benefit the Port’s subsidiary company, Mostyn SeaPower Ltd has continued data gathering to support a GCO application to construct a 298GWh per annum tidal lagoon in the Dee Estuary adjacent to the Port.
The project entails installing a 6.7Km lagoon wall between the Port’s breakwater and Point of Ayr at the estuary entrance. This wall will create a lagoon area of 12.2 square Km and will include two sluice structures and three turbine houses in an area with a natural seabed depth of -20m Chart Datum.
The design life of the turbines will be 50 years and in excess of 100 years for the lagoon wall. The height of the wall will be 12m above HAT that will provide flood protection for 4.5 miles of low-lying coastline that will benefit the communities occupying premises along the adjacent Coast Road whiles also protecting the Holyhead to Crewe railway line.
To date, initial geophysical, ornithological, fish and mammal surveys have been completed and a Connection Agreement with National Grid is in place. Options to enhance the project with battery storage and on-site hydrogen production are being evaluated.
Future Proofing our Ports: Milford Haven
It’s been an incredibly busy year for the Port of Milford Haven, the UK’s largest energy port, with construction of a new 66-meter expanded slipway, 6.5 hectares of new laydown space, new offices, workshops and workboat pontoons at Pembroke Port now completed.
The works have been part of the £60 million Pembroke Dock Marine project funded by the Swansea Bay City Deal and the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government, and delivered alongside initiatives by Marine Energy Wales, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Celtic Sea Power.
Pembroke Dock Marine laid the foundations for the successful Celtic Freeport bid, for which a Business Case is being developed in partnership with ABP Port Talbot and the local authorities in Pembrokeshire and Neath Port Talbot. Attaining freeport status will be a powerful step forward for the region.
The Port of Milford Haven has also been laying the groundwork for future growth; undertaking capacity and capability studies in consideration of marine renewable deployment, and the towing of FLOW turbines on the Haven. They have engaged directly with developers to understand their requirements against the backdrop of the Crown Estate’s 17GW ambition for the Celtic Sea. Complementing successive public and private sector assessments, they have made it clear that Pembroke Port is ideally located for the Celtic Sea development areas to support gigawatt scale construction support, anchor and cable deployment and possibly floating foundation assembly.
Through all this activity, the team has been progressing their ambition plan for Pembroke Port. With far reaching potential, the next phase of the plan builds on from Pembroke Dock Marine and the Celtic Freeport to further unlock the FLOW opportunity, with the redevelopment of underutilised land into a heavy lift quay suitable for turbine integration. The Pembroke Dock Renewables Terminal will support UK and Welsh government renewable energy targets and Net Zero ambition, with a phased £350 million investment needed to support gigawatt scale FLOW deployment from the 2030s. The Port says it is looking forward to working with UK and Welsh governments and with industry to execute a model that captures this market opportunity.
Our reflections
More often than not, the size of marine energy devices means it is most cost effective to fabricate and construct as close as possible to locations with access to the water, in the form slipways and deepwater quayside. Like many marine industries, technology developers also need access to adequate laydown space.
MEW plays an important role in communicating the requirements of industry to Wales’ ports and it’s extremely positive to see the progress made to date. Ports are vital to the success of the sector – acting as hubs for fabrication, construction and testing and gateways to the offshore for Welsh businesses.
We know that for every £1 invested in port facilities, a return of £3 is generated to the Welsh economy, and therefore both Welsh and UK Governments can not underestimate the value and benefit of ports to our local and national economies. Future policy should promote further public investment in state-of-the-art renewable ready port facilities and discourage competition amongst ports as seen in FLOWMIS.