The Welsh Government has joined with Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership to launch the Celtic Sea Cluster.
With support from Marine Energy Wales, Celtic Sea Power and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the Celtic Sea Cluster will work with The Crown Estate and Celtic Sea Developers Alliance with the aim of significantly reducing the time for offshore wind to achieve first power generation, which typically takes a decade. It will also build the supply chain by bringing together companies working in floating offshore wind.
The region has several projects in development:
• Marine project developer Simply Blue Energy has partnered with TotalEnergies to develop the 96MW Erebus project off the south coast of Wales
• Simply Blue Energy has also partnered with Shell to develop the up to 1.3GW Emerald project off the south coast of Ireland
• Hexicon has partnered with Bechtel to develop a 30MW array on the Wave Hub site off the north coast of Cornwall
• A joint venture between Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, S.A. and Flotation Energy plc is leading the 100MW White Cross project, off the coast of Devon and Cornwall.
• Floventis Energy Limited, a newly established joint venture between SBM Offshore and Cierco Ltd, is leading the Llŷr 1 and Llŷr 2 projects, two separate 100MW arrays, each testing different technologies, south of Pembroke on the Welsh coast.
Analysis suggests 2040 targets for floating wind deployment in the Celtic Sea need to be on track to establish around 3.4GW of deployed capacity to achieve 2050 Net Zero. The Welsh Government and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership have recognised the need for a coordinated approach to secure the market opportunity and harness their supply chain strengths to grow sustainable jobs.
Andrew Jamieson, Chief Executive of ORE Catapult, said: “The development of a strong national supply chain is important for the UK to make the most of the floating wind opportunity. Collaboration, enabled by the Cluster, will help grow the region’s supply chain capability, with an aligned aim of kick-starting the sector in the region, facilitating best use of infrastructure, ultimately forging a new market that can mature to accelerate delivery and scale over the coming decades.”
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, Non-Executive Director, Steve Jermy said: “Cornwall is already moving at pace growing a very strong offshore renewables supply chain, extending links to other cross-sector specialist capabilities along the Great South West coast, such as autonomy in Plymouth and composites in Bristol. These will augment the heavy engineering strengths in South Wales, and the Cluster will play a pivotal role in strengthening this excellent regional capability to both meet the needs of the project developer and maximise the chances of job creation across the South West and Wales.”
Chair of the Celtic Sea Developers Alliance, Steve Hall, said: The development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea requires collaboration and strategic development to enable the deployment of sustainable, green energy generation. ..The Cluster’s activities supporting emerging local supply chains will enable the delivery of local content, anchor expertise and drive innovation, which will undoubtedly facilitate accelerated deployment by making the Celtic Sea the easiest place in the UK to develop floating offshore wind.
Full details on the Cluster’s website here