Green Times

Scottish and Southern Energy has announced a deal with the operator of six ports in Scotland and a major port in London to develop up to 150 MW of on-site renewable energy projects.The energy supplier will work with Forth Ports to invest in generation, distribution and supply of renewable energy for the port sites themselves as well as for export to the electricity network.

The companies have already gained planning consent for four 2MW onshore wind turbines at the Port of Tilbury on the River Thames, a project valued at around £12 million.

Along with other ports operated by Forth Ports - including Dundee, Leith and four other sites on the Firth of Forth - the venture is considering a range of projects from onshore and offshore wind installations to biomass-powered generation.

Under a new joint venture called Forth Energy, the companies claimed their developments had the potential to be “Scotland’s biggest developer of on-site dedicated renewable power generation facilities”.

Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said: “Our venture with Forth Ports will provide us with a series of new opportunities to pursue sustainable energy developments, with a variety of technologies. Working with a leading infrastructure owner and developer like Forth Ports represents another important milestone in the growth of our energy services business.”
Forth

Forth Ports, which has its headquarters in Edinburgh, also manages and operates an area of 280 square miles of navigable waters within and around the Firths of Tay and Forth, including two specialised marine terminals for oil and gas export.

The company said it had been examining how to develop a renewable energy strategy for some time.

Charles Hammond, group chief executive of Forth Ports, said: “On a stand-alone basis, we expect these projects to deliver attractive returns. SSE is the UK leader in renewable energy, and through working with them we believe we can realise a significant number of opportunities. These include meeting our own energy needs from renewable sources, customers’ growing demand for green energy and planning authorities’ sustainable energy requirements.

“Our ports should also benefit from the increased handling of renewables feedstocks,” Mr Hammond added.

With 150MW of possible projects identified by the venture, Port Energy said up to 200 permanent skilled engineering and craft jobs will be created if the plans are fully realised.

The project was welcomed by Scotland’s energy minister, Jim Mather, who said: “This collaborative project will aid the regeneration of Forth Ports’ property asset base, while creating skilled jobs and cutting emissions, which is exactly in line with our strategy to put renewables at the heart of economic growth in Scotland.”

Source: New Energy Focus, UK