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The Prime Minister has announced plans to support new large scale portside manufacturing hubs, to create next-generation offshore wind turbines, alongside significantly increased ambition in renewable energy deployment.

The initial focus of potential government support is to the development of larger coastal sites that are capable of accommodating multiple large manufacturing facilities, and be able to generate manufacturing clusters where several smaller producers can co-locate.

Sites would need to be able to develop all or most of these characteristics:

• Significant quayside capability, quay length and water depth – capable of accommodating heavy lifting vessels and wider supply vessels for multiple tenants
• connected land for marshalling to support the build out of typically 2-3 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity per annum, including the potential for storage of products to bridge between manufacturing and installation cycles
• sufficient land availability to support multiple manufacturers on the site, including sufficient flexibility to ‘future-proof’ facilities for future expansion. This suggests a minimum 200 ha or more area of development and storage land is needed behind the quay (not including land for transport and logistics movements around the port hub)
• have a realistic chance of completing construction or being partly operational by 2023

Potential projects should provide this information to BEIS at OWMIS@Beis.gov.uk by Friday 30 October.

This will lead to an initial stage of engagement, before a more formalised appraisal of any potential projects.

To find out more, please visit the website.