The All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Celtic Sea welcomes the announcement of the successful bid for the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS) into the Celtic Sea through Port Talbot, and would like to extend our thanks to the Energy Security and Net Zero ministerial team for their ongoing engagement.
The APPG are pleased that yesterday’s announcement confirms the distribution of funding between North Sea and Celtic Sea ports. However, it should be remembered that historically, Celtic Sea ports have not received the same levels of investment that have helped their North Sea counterparts develop the supply chains and port capabilities necessary for deploying Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW). It has become increasingly clear that to deliver the Celtic Sea project additional funding is needed to support the port infrastructure this nationally significant series of wind turbines represents.
Associated British Ports (ABP) are committed to supporting the deployment of green energy and, with the support of the UK Government, are set to transport the port of Port Talbot into a major hub for FLOW. This will go some way to kickstart the required investment to enable projects in the Celtic Sea to progress and secure considerable supply chain benefits in the longer term.
The announcement is a welcome first step, however, as Chair of the APPG, I am hugely disappointed that no funding has been made available to Port Falmouth given its partnership with Hexicon ‘s Twinhub. As the first floating offshore wind project in the Celtic Sea and, having successfully bid and secured a contract in CfD AR4, the Twinhub project is far more advanced than others. The absence of FLOWMIS funding will now make it more challenging for these partners to deliver the project and will almost certainly see many of the onshore benefits of this vital project go overseas. It is hugely disappointing that the stepping stone nature of the Celtic Sea FLOW projects seems to have been omitted from decision criteria for FLOWMIS and the APPG will continue to seek to engage with ministers to secure additional port funding into Falmouth and other ports around the Celtic Sea as more projects secure a lease.
No single port in the Celtic Sea will be able to carry out activities to support all projects and so a multi port strategy will be essential. I want to restate the APPG’s ask for a subsequent and bigger FLOWMIS immediately that supports multiple Celtic Sea ports to secure the onshore benefits of the huge opportunity FLOW presents. In particular government should support the Hexicon project that is battling a much changed economic environment since its bid, and with Falmouth Port ready to match government funding, this first stepping stone project needs that vital FLOWMIS leg up to see optimal onshore benefits alongside this innovative, leading offshore project.
