Industry Delivery Plans (IDPs) setting out how key challenges of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea could be addressed have been produced by eight locally-led business consortia with ambitions to scale up.
These IDPs demonstrate credible ambition to lead delivery – of; anchors and mooring, operations and maintenance and logistical services – from within the Celtic Sea region.
The IDPs have been commissioned by Celtic Sea Power, thanks to funding allocated from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme, which is managed by Cornwall Council and funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The plans have advanced private sector led investment cases ahead of upcoming leasing rounds for FLOW. The programme, part of CSP’s Piranha+ approach to building regional capacity ahead of a green energy market, engaged over thirty UK companies and helped forge links between ports, yards, infrastructure owners and local stakeholders. Four of the companies went on to win support for their scale-up proposition with development expenditure from the Crown Estate’s Accelerator.
The potential of Celtic Sea FLOW has been highlighted by various market analyses and reports such as the Celtic Sea BluePrint and the Missing Middle. These IDPs however directly address how opportunities can be realised by UK companies. Phil Johnston of Celtic Sea Power explains: “Our approach has been very practical; ask those with ambition to take on the big challenges and commission them to articulate; how?” . Within each IDP report, lead companies – Tugdock, Tardra, Nerth, Hutchinson, Morek, Apollo, Solis and Jet – also articulated barriers to growth and the expected impact of their propositions on Cornwall in terms of jobs and GVA.
Nick Dale of Tardra said; “It has greatly helped us to detail the opportunities, challenges and risks of bringing new assets to floating offshore wind. Paving the way for our success with the Crown Estate and bolster the growth of the Tardra business.”.
This work has highlighted existing capabilities in the Celtic Sea region where there is both ambition by local entrepreneurs and will to draw in capacity from elsewhere in the UK. Dan Start of Nerth said; “CSP’s ‘Piranha+’ approach has enabled us to embrace a consortium-led approach to scaling our ambitions for the Celtic Sea and beyond. Investment, funding, and of course sector growth, will be crucial to making this vision a reality – this has catalysed the all important first steps.”.
Notably, the market challenges these IDPs aim to address closely align with key UK opportunities UK identified in the Offshore Wind Industry Council’s ‘Industrial Growth Plan’ as priorities for rapid scale-up. Alongside the first round of The Crown Estate’s Accelerator programme the IDPs are an example of “no regret activity” to increase capacity ahead of green energy developments. These are significant steps forward for; local business growth, export potential for the UK, and delivery of Celtic Sea FLOW. It highlights the increasing investment readiness of an underdeveloped region just as the Clean Industry Bonus schemes initiates in AR7.
Each Industry Delivery Plan (IDP) is owned by the lead company and may be available on request. CSP’s Piranha+ programme is ongoing and all companies with ambitions to develop solutions ahead of emerging market challenges are encouraged to sign up to https://piranha-hub.com/.
