Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence: Strategic Infrastructure and Supply Chain Development – May 2022

The ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FOW CoE) has undertaken a project to identify and quantify the key infrastructure and supply chain requirements to deliver a pipeline of large scale floating offshore wind projects cost effectively across the UK and with a significant share of project activity based in the UK.

The project was delivered by the ORE Catapult and ARUP with the support of the FOW CoE partners and extensive stakeholder engagement.

There is limited visibility regarding the scale and rate of offshore wind deployment across the UK at the regional level beyond 2030. As it stands, the UK does not have the infrastructure capability, or capacity required to support a number of key large scale floating offshore wind project construction activities including steel substructure manufacture and assembly, concrete substructure construction, turbine and substructure marshalling, assembly and integration. Across Scotland and the Celtic Sea a total of £2.0-2.5bn of investment is estimated to be required to 2030 to enable the UK to deliver a strong pipeline of floating offshore wind projects, and associated targets, in the short term. The £2.0-2.5bn investment includes a total investment in Scotland of £1bn for port infrastructure and £450-750m for manufacturing facilities, with the capacity to deliver 142 units or 2.5GW annually.

Short term deployment targets need to be combined with medium- and long-term deployment ambitions. Regional “port clusters” should be developed in the short term around one or more “hub” facilities. The use of the current Freeport and Green Freeport mechanisms has the potential to significantly improve the broader business and investment case for major infrastructure development. A dedicated scheme should be developed in the coming years to support large scale investment in port infrastructure between 2024 and 2028. Any scheme developed above should include consideration of, and / or be coordinated with other activities to address, the softer barriers the UK will face when attracting investment in port and particularly manufacturing facility investment.