Forth Ports spends £50m after ‘game changer’ contract

Marine access, infrastructure, vessels, plant and equipment will all be enhanced to fulfil the Inch Cape contract, which will be installed 15 kilometres off the Angus Coast.

Seventy-two Vestas wind turbines will generate the power, which Inch Cape says will power more than half of Scotland’s households.

The Port of Leith will handle the monopile and jacket foundations of the wind farm and the pre-assembly of the nacelles, blades and towers will be carried out at the Port of Dundee.

The wind turbines are, at 274m tall, the tallest to be deployed in Scottish waters.

The wind farm has also prompted the development of the Port of Dundee which, alongside the Port of Leith, has been upgraded to a ‘renewable energy hub’.

“Today’s announcement is a game changer for Forth Ports and the Scottish offshore wind market,” said David Webster, commercial director at Forth Ports. “We have created world-class renewables hubs in Dundee and Leith and solved the challenge of local content by putting them at ports near the construction sites, creating high quality local green jobs and local supply chains while securing work for future generations.”

“Our strategy is to create and build the renewables hubs ahead of market demand and we have achieved this in Dundee and Leith,” said Forth Ports CEO Stuart Wallace. “Coupled with other specialist facilities delivered by Forth Projects, this creates an unrivalled prime position for Forth Ports to deliver large offshore wind projects.

Inch Cape, he said, is the biggest contract ever awarded to the company.

Forth Ports has been working for 10 years to create the land, quayside and skills capacity necessary to develop facilities for offshore wind, it says.