Highland port secures work on North Sea wind farm

A former oil and gas fabrication yard in the Highlands is to play a role in the construction and running of a floating wind farm off the Aberdeenshire coast.

Ardersier, near Inverness, is to serve as an assembly, delivery and operations centre for the 1GW Aspen project in the North Sea.

Once completed, it would be one of three connected offshore wind farms with a total of more than 300 turbines about 52 miles (84km) east of Peterhead.

Developer Cerulean Winds said Aspen would support more than 1,000 UK jobs during its 50-year lifespan.

Floating wind farms involve turbines installed on platforms which are anchored to the seabed.

Aspen is being developed along with two other offshore wind farms called Beech and Cedar.

Energy firm Haventus is redeveloping the 450-acre (182ha) yard at Ardersier.

UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks visited the site on Monday.

He said: "The clean energy transition is well underway in Scotland - thanks to state-of-the-art offshore wind projects, like this one at the Port of Ardersier, that will help us deliver on our Plan for Change and clean power by 2030 mission."

Mr Shanks said the project would bring jobs to Scotland.

In the 1970s the McDermott Yard opened at Ardersier on the Moray Firth for the fabrication and construction of offshore platforms for the then newly-established North Sea gas and oil industry.

At its height the yard employed about 4,500 people but it closed in 2001 as demand dropped.

Today's Port of Ardersier forms part of the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.

Peter Ross, a project manager for the port's contractor Bilfinger, worked in the oil and gas industry but is now transitioning into the renewables sector with support from his employer.

He said Aspen could involve about 70 turbines being handled at Ardersier.

He said: "I think it's fantastic for the local area, and for Scotland and UK.

"This is one of the biggest sites in the country, and it is going to be an exciting place to work. It's going to be a busy port."

Port of Cromarty Firth, another green freeport site, has awarded a £1.5m contract to Glasgow-based civil engineering firm RJ McLeod as part of its £111m expansion plans.

RJ McLeod will carry out all pre-construction work for improvements to a quay to allow the port at Invergordon to better serve North Sea wind farms.