Kincardine developer to use Kishorn dry dock for floating wind project

Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Ltd has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Kishorn Port Ltd to use the Kishorn dry dock in Wester Ross during the construction of its 50-MW floating offshore wind park south-east of Aberdeen.

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) announced the signing of the deal on Friday, saying that it paves the way for work to start at the site in August. HIE noted that GBP 450,000 was invested to upgrade the dry dock and prepare it for new contracts, as it has not been in use since 1994.

Kincardine Offshore will use the site to fabricate the semi-spar substructure for the eight 6-MW floating wind turbines that will be deployed in the North Sea. The Scottish government cleared the Kincardine project last month. The first turbine is expected to be in the water in the second quarter of 2018.

“The combination of Leith’s on-site quarry at Kishorn with one of the largest dry docks in Western Europe makes the yard an ideal location for manufacturing large concrete structures,” said Simon Russell, a director of Kishorn Port. Up to 200 new jobs are seen to be created at the site.

Kishorn Port is a joint venture between Ferguson Transport (Spean Bridge) Ltd and Leiths (Scotland) Ltd. Kincardine Offshore, on the other hand, is owned by WS Atkins plc (LON:ATK) and Pilot Offshore Renewable Energy (PORL). It was announced earlier today, that Atkins has agreed to be bought by Canada’s SNC-Lavalin Group Inc (TSE:SNC) in a GBP-2.1-billion (USD 2.7bn/EUR 2.5bn) deal.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.280/EUR 1.194)

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