Hopes that Ayrshire could play a major role in the development of the renewable energy industry have been boosted after a key project cleared an important hurdle.
Peel Ports has won planning approval for a plan to redevelop the marine yard at Hunterston to allow it to support work on huge windfarms which are expected to be developed off the UK’s west coast in coming years.
The yard is on the sprawling site of the former coal terminal at Hunterston. Peel Ports said the award of planning approval for the complete redevelopment of the yard could help pave the way to the Hunterston site becoming a centre of clean energy activity, which could support thousands of jobs.
“Hunterston is set to become a major facilitator of the UK energy transition, and this decision is a big step forward in making that happen,” said Lewis McIntyre, Managing Director – Port Services at Peel Ports Group.
“It also proves that the west coast is going to play a huge role in renewables.”
READ MORE: £500m SNP Government fund farce hangs over Scottish Budget
The award of planning approval for the yard work provides a fresh boost to the momentum of the wider Hunterston redevelopment plan, which has won backing from the Scottish and UK Governments in recent months.
In October Highview Power announced a plan to develop an energy storage plant on part of the Hunterston site with support from the Scottish Government.
Highview said the plant would use liquid air to deliver five times Scotland’s current operational battery storage capacity.
First minister John Swinney held out the prospect the plant would bring hundreds of high skilled jobs to the Ayrshire region.
READ MORE: Is Ayrshire key to Scotland becoming a green industrial powerhouse?
In September XLCC won UK Infrastructure Bank backing for a plan to create a subsea cable manufacturing plant that will employ around 900 people on the Hunterston site.
Peel Ports said the overall redevelopment of the site is expected to attract £3.5bn in inward investment and create over 5,000 jobs.
The privately-owned group added: “Of the 350 acres being redeveloped, some 90% of the site is already under option.”
Mr McInytre said Peel Ports would fund the £150m work on the marine yard from its own resources.
The work will include infilling the current dry-dock basin and creating a new quay wall.
Windfarm developers will require access to deep water facilities with long quays that could accommodate huge turbine blades.
READ MORE: Rosebank oil field firm shrugs off Scottish court challenge
Subject to obtaining the relevant marine licences, Peel Ports expects the redevelopment work to start in 2025 and to last for around two years.
The Scottish Government has faced calls to do more to support a ‘just transition’ from a fossil fuel-powered economy. Investment in windfarms and the like in Scotland has not provided the boost to the economy hoped for by ministers.
Energy minister Gillian Martin said recently that the Scottish Government expects to publish the final version of its energy strategy by the end of the year along with a revamp of the £500m transition initiative it launched in 2021. The Scottish Government published a draft energy strategy in January last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel