Blow for Wick bid to harvest wind business
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WICK could potentially miss out on a major jobs boom after it was yesterday revealed it was not among the four sites earmarked for public support to attract offshore wind business.
First Minister Alex Salmond announced Highlands and Islands Enterprise has signed joint working agreements with Global Energy Nigg, Port of Ardersier, Kishorn Port Limited and Cromarty Firth Port Authority to support owners and operators secure consents, market opportunities, attract investments and enable further development.
Wick Harbour, which was touted as a main port to service the prospective wave of offshore wind turbines in the Moray Firth, was not mentioned in the announcement made at the Offshore Wind and Supply Chain Conference in Aberdeen.
However business representatives in Caithness maintain Wick remains a prime location to support the sector.
Mr Salmond said the four ports selected are vital to the success of an emerging industry in Scotland.
"We are working hard with our enterprise agencies both to secure overseas investment into our world-leading renewable energy industry and to support Scottish businesses to seize the huge opportunities available, working in partnership with inward investors and the rest of the supply chain to create jobs and help re-industrialise communities right across Scotland," he said.
"These ports are ideally-positioned to become key hubs for the deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy, across manufacturing, assembly, operations and maintenance."
Last year, Wick Harbour Authority said up to 100 jobs could be created in the far north if planning applications were approved for Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited and Moray Offshore Renewables.
They envisaged Wick becoming an operations and maintenance base for either one or both of the windfarms, believing the nearest contenders for the business being Invergordon and Buckie.
Harbour chairman Willie Watt yesterday said the announcement had not knocked the confidence of the port, saying that talks were progressing well regarding future developments.
"Most of the work that the announcement involves will be in the construction of windfarms, which we are not competing with," he said.
"We’re in the market for operation and maintenance bases and also in the deployment and recovery of tidal wave projects.
"This announcement will not have any impact on us from the way we’re moving forward and once these developments come to fruition, we will get closer to economic opportunities
"It is the developers who will choose which ports they will work at, and their decision will be based on location, where we are well positioned on the map to the sites.
"I am confident we can fulfil the expectations of our operators and win a slice of the action for Wick."
Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership programme manager Eann Sinclair also said that Wick would still have an important part to play in the development of offshore wind.
Although Invergordon had been chosen as the location to encourage potential operations and maintenance developments by HIE, he believed that a significant amount of jobs could be created in this field.
"HIE are holding detailed discussions with the offshore developers for Moray and Beatrice offshore windfarm involving Wick Harbour," he said.
"There are still Marine Scotland consents in process but these discussions are at a detailed stage.
"Most of the ports that were named will be involved in the manufacturing stage whereas I still feel that Wick will have role to play in deployment, maintenance and operations due to proximity to the sites.
"The proposed windfarms are so vast that places such as us and Buckie – which is also not mentioned – are still confident to be in prime position for economic growth."
Mr Sinclair said that the location of the harbour being only one mile away from Wick John O’Groats Airport and Caithness General Hospital would be a major selling point to the offshore industry.
HIE chief executive Alex Paterson said that the offshore wind supply chain is showing strong interest in Scottish ports and harbours, and these official agreements give the market the strongest possible statement that the ports in the Highlands and Islands are open for renewables business.
He said: "HIE is fully committed to working with ports across the region to ensure that they are ready to support manufacture, fabrication, assembly, deployment and operational support for the Scottish, UK and European offshore wind market."
SSE (Beatrice) and Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd would have the final say to where their operations would be based if they are granted planning permission which is due to be decided later this year.
