{"id":5734,"date":"2025-09-30T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport\/2025\/09\/30\/highlands-freeport-drives-offshore-wind-growth\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:18:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:18:43","slug":"highlands-freeport-drives-offshore-wind-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/news\/projects-initiatives-greenport\/highlands-freeport-drives-offshore-wind-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlands freeport drives offshore wind growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A&nbsp;memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed by the UK and Scottish governments, Highland Council and ICFGF, marks the final stage of a five-year process to establish the Highlands as a global hub for marine renewables and clean energy investment.<\/p>\n<p>Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: \u201cThis is a pivotal moment in the UK Government\u2019s mission to boost economic growth in all parts of the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Inverness and Cromarty Green Freeport will transform the economy of the Highlands, as well as playing a key role in our clean energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Crucial role<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The MoU unlocks UK Government funding for major port investment across partner sites, strengthening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/port-and-terminal-news\/mitsui-and-mol-acquire-port-of-nigg\/1503813.article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">facilities at Port of Nigg<\/a>, Port of Cromarty Firth, Highland Deephaven, Ardersier and Inverness.<\/p>\n<p>These developments will play a crucial role in meeting the UK\u2019s offshore wind and renewable energy ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>ICFGF is expected to deliver over 11,000 long-term jobs and attract more than GB\u00a36.5bn in inward investment, building a future-ready workforce and anchoring the Highlands within the international clean energy supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>Early successes include securing Sumitomo Electric\u2019s GB\u00a3350m subsea cable plant at Nigg and supporting the GB\u00a3100m Ardersier Energy Transition Facility, both vital to scaling floating offshore wind.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to its focus on the renewable and low-carbon energy industries, Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport aims to bring up to 11,300 jobs to the Highlands aligning with the Scottish Government\u2019s flagship Fair Work First policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF) has signed a landmark agreement which will unlock GB\u00a325m to boost port infrastructure and drive offshore wind growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,8],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-5734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-technology-greenport","category-projects-initiatives-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5736,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions\/5736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=5734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}