Gale force

Cruise passengers and tourists visiting the Danish port of Esbjerg can enjoy a popular and rather unusual outing – a boat trip to see the Horns Rev I and II offshore windfarms. When it came into operation in 2002, Horns Rev I was the first offshore windfarm in the North Sea, and the first large-scale offshore windfarm in the world.

The scale of development since then has been vast. More than 91% – 8,045 MW – of the world’s offshore wind installations can be found in European waters, according to a recent report by Ocean Shipping Consultants, mainly in the North Sea (63%), Atlantic (22%) and Baltic Sea (14%). The European Wind Energy Association has identified 26.4 GW of consented offshore windfarms in Europe and also future plans which add up to another 98 GW. Offshore wind energy in the EU is expected to grow to 23.5 GW by 2020.

As offshore windfarms emerge, there are considerable opportunities for ports. Esbjerg took the early initiative and has continued to expand its offshore wind facilities ever since. As chief commercial officer Jesper Bank says: “At the beginning, obviously there could have been two or three other Danish ports in this game. But Esbjerg had at that point, and still has, the ability to expand and what is very important when you talk about offshore wind turbines is flexibility. That means you need areas with room to move; these are big items.

“Some traditional port areas might not be suitable because you have buildings and other things in the way. But we have large areas of quayside and land.”

Esbjerg used existing land for some of its first windfarm projects but very quickly moved into new, expanded areas, by reclaiming land from the sea. “You have to have the strategic guts to do it – no one could predict the future, but in doing the analysis it was clear that in the best case this would be huge,” says Mr Bank. “The board was willing to take that kind of risk.”

Land hungry

Last year, 450 MW of offshore wind capacity was shipped from the Port of Esbjerg. In March this year, it was announced that MHI Vestas Offshore Wind was more than doubling the area it leases at the port, using the facilities for pre-assembly and shipment of offshore wind turbines. The company was one of the first to move into the new East Port in 2013 and it has carried out several projects from the facility since then. The MHI Vestas site will expand from 54,200 sq m to 138,200 sq m, and will include an extra quay space to allow for the handling of multiple projects at the same time.

This expansion will be on existing land, but the port is also expanding again. “We are at the point where we are ‘sold out’ and have no more space available, so we announced another expansion, to provide another 250,000 sq m,” says Mr Bank. “That will start this year and should be finished by summer 2017.”

However, he emphasised a key point; this will be a flexible area, not just purpose-built for offshore wind. “We also have to accept the fact that the market might change in the future; so these areas could be used for a different kind of business if necessary. As a port, we have several ‘legs’ and we are quite happy with that.”

Among the risks in the windfarm game are political decisions on energy policy and subsidies/financial policy, of course. While a port like Esbjerg has no control over that, Mr Bank says: “You do have to be extremely aware of what is going on. We have had several port expansions, so you have to believe in the market, but you also have to understand the market – and that includes the UK, German and Dutch markets. We are competing with ports all round the North Sea.”

German role

Germany’s Seaports of Niedersachsen are another force to be reckoned with in the sector. Cuxhaven handled the construction work for E.ON’s Amrumbank West windfarm, including the foundation structures for 80 wind turbines. Last year, port operator Cuxport announced an agreement with Siemens covering logistics operations for the BorWin 2, HelWin 1 HelWin 2 and SylWin 1 offshore converter platforms. Nordenham and Emden offer special storage areas and handling systems for sea cables, and Wilhelmshaven handled the completely mounted rotor stars for the Global Tech 1 windfarm.

The realisation of the potential for offshore wind development depends on the capacity to overcome supply chain and logistics challenges, says Ocean Shipping Consultants (OSC). “In some European countries, such as Germany and the UK, offshore wind market development may be challenged not only by component unavailability – turbines, foundations, cables – but also by a need for construction facilities and ports, as well as installation equipment,” warns OSC.

The question for any port looking at the windfarm sector is whether it is an installation port, production port or service, port, says Mr Bank. “In the service area, almost any port around the North Sea has some kind of activity if they are close to a windfarm,” he says. “But moving into production and installation, it is a completely different game. Very few ports have the ability to take on that task; and we consider ourselves an international benchmark.”

Windfarm-related investments can also open up other possibilities for a port. Peel Ports Great Yarmouth announced in March that it had been selected as the port for construction and installation activities for ScottishPower Renewables’ £2.5bn East Anglia ONE windfarm 30 miles offshore. Up to £5m will be co-invested in a new facility to support activities for the 102-turbine windfarm. This will include infrastructure and groundworks, yard storage and marshalling, and the installation of heavy lift quay facilities. Components will be pre-assembled on the quayside, then loaded onto installation vessels. The port has already provided installation and construction support for the Sheringham Shoal, Lincs and Scroby Sands windfarms.

Graeme Charnock, Peel Ports’ chief financial officer, said the latest investment would open up undeveloped land at the port and this could provide opportunities to develop other business.

WIND IN THE SAILS OF HULL

In February, it was announced that the final investment decision had been made on DONG’s 1.2 GW Hornsea Project One. The world’s first offshore windfarm to exceed 1GW in capacity, it will cover about 407 sq km. Siemens has been named the preferred supplier for this project’s 7MW turbines, and its new turbine production facilities at ABP’s Port of Hull will support the project.

Associated British Ports and Siemens are jointly investing £310m in the 540,000 sq m manufacturing, service, assembly and installation plant for offshore wind turbines and rotor blades at Alexandra Dock.

Simon Brett, ABP Humber head of projects, says: “We are on schedule to hand over the final phase of this facility to Siemens in January 2017. I have been working on this project for three years, and it is great to see it coming closer to fruition.”

The facility is being built as part of the broader Green Port Hull initiative, he says. “Green Port Hull isn’t just limited to Alexandra Dock – it is a much wider concept about jobs and investment involving a number of sites, both ABP-owned and non ABP-owned. It is about attracting other renewables-related industry to the area.”

Siemens is an ‘anchor tenant’ in the Green Port Hull concept, he explains. “The city is starting to have success in attracting companies, particularly Danish companies which are used to dealing with Siemens on the other side of the North Sea and able to bring their expertise to the UK.”

One of the requirements of government financial support for Green Port Hull investments is that there must be ‘local content’. There were discussions about producing wind towers at Hull as well. However, CS Wind recently announced it would manufacture these at an existing facility in Campbelltown, Scotland.

“We were disappointed that the towers won’t be built out of Hull but they will be shipped around here and loaded out of Hull for installation, so this is still UK content,” says Mr Brett.

It’s important to acknowledge, he says, that this is a very land-hungry industry. “A key element of future development is land adjacent to deep water. Siemens has taken up the main opportunity that exists here at present. However, we will look at other opportunities for riverside development (on the Humber) as and when they arise.”