Cromarty Firth will be 'at the centre of renewable development for Scotland' says port boss Bob Buskie
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The other main plank of the offshore wind energy will be the Port of Cromarty Firth at Invergordon where chief executive Bob Buskie said it is “hugely important that this region takes advantage of that opportunity.”
Invergordon will be vital to maximising the opportunities for offshore wind development presented by a freeport as it will host a serial manufacturing facility for floating offshore wind structures.
But for Mr Buskie the fact that Rishi Sunak travelled north to make the announcement about the green freeports indicated that “this is the place that is going to be at the centre of renewable development for Scotland.”
He said: “We can deliver fantastic jobs, low carbon and make sure the opportunities for young people are here on their doorstep. So I think it's a fantastic day for everyone.
“Being on a two and a half year journey to make that happen, it's just so great that the outcome of that has been the decision by the Prime Minister to come here and announce that this is the first green freeport in Scotland.
“And based on the fact that the business case we submitted in the end was probably the best bid that they received so we are grateful for that feedback.
“I think if you look at the government strategy on decarbonization, net zero, we're sitting here on the doorstep of the biggest wind resource probably in the world so it's hugely important that this region takes advantage of that opportunity.”
How the Port will play its part in that is significant and will see the major range of manufacturing take place on a huge scale.
“We're looking at doing a lot of serial manufacturing here of floating offshore wind structures,” Mr Buskie said. “That's going to be one of the key components of making the opportunity become a reality.
“There's going to be 30 gigawatts of offshore power, a big majority of that is going to be floating wind.
“These structures are the same typical sizes of oil rigs so there's a lot of fabrication, there's a lot of assembly, there's a lot of engineering to be done and when they're built out they'll be can be both concrete and steel manufacturing they'll then be integrated with a wind turbine, the blades and nacelles on them.
“They will be stored here, commissioned here on the Cromarty Firth and then taken out in the North Sea where they will be operating as offshore wind farms. There's going to be thousands of these structures so there's going to be a process of manufacturing them from raw materials to finished solutions.”
