Able Marine Park granted £15m by UK government

UK: The UK government has handed the planned industrial base for offshore wind, Able Marine Energy Park, £14.9 million (EUR 18 million) to help kick-start construction.

by Patrick Smith 29 January 2014

The Able Marine Energy Park will cover around three square kilometres
Located near the port of Grimsby in the north-east of England, the complex will be made up of a quay, factories, storage facilities and associated infrastructure to enable developers and operators to work on offshore projects in the North Sea.

The investment has been made as part of the enterprise zone capital grant fund from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The money will go towards the first £29-million phase of construction, which will cover general infrastructure provisions. This is set to conclude in March 2015.

Plans to build the £450 million centre were approved by the government in December, when Austrian construction company Strabag also named the energy complex as its preferred site to build its gravity-based foundations for offshore wind.

It covers three square-kilometres on the Humber river's south bank and is intended to become a key port for the manufacture, assembly and deployment of offshore wind, serving the UK's Round 3 offshore projects.

Current nearby wind projects include Hornsea (4GW), Westernmost Rough (240MW) and Humber Gateway (219MW).