The Port of Sunderland in north-east England has upgraded its 220m river berth, Greenwells Quay, to enhance its prospects of winning work from the UK's expanding offshore wind market.
Among improvements are those made to road infrastructure, enabling use of the quay for activities other than vessel lay-by. Matthew Hunt, Port of Sunderland’s director, said "more commercial opportunities" would flow, as a result.
The port has already hosted cabling contractors working on Centrica's 270MW Lincs project, off the Lincolnshire coast.
Greenwells Quay has water depths of 5.4-6.4m and 30,000m² of open storage space.
North Sea wind projects are in the port's sights, with Dogger Bank a particularly attractive prospect. The 8,660 km² area is the largest Round 3 development zone and lies due east of Sunderland. Some 9GW of capacity is slated for development there by 2020, which the Forewind consortium will develop in phases.
EDF's Teesside development is also close to Sunderland. Located off Redcar, the 62MW project is due for completion by the end of the year.
.png)
.png)
