Energy park faces delay after plans for manufacturing plant are withdrawn
The company developing Able Marine Energy Park (AMEP) on the south bank of the Humber says it remains “totally committed” to the project, despite a Korean company deciding to switch plans for a monopile manufacturing plant to a taxpayer funded site on Teesside.
Able Group executive chairman, Peter Stephenson, said while the decision, by the company SeAH, was “disappointing” and would delay the start of AMEP, the project remained central to the Government’s aspirations – and those of the company – to be at the forefront of establishing the UK as a world leader in offshore wind energy development.
He said: “The AMEP project needs to secure commitment from other key manufacturers. They, in turn, need to secure their own initial orders to justify their investment.
“Their immediate opportunity was within the soon to be completed (April/July) CfD (Contract for Differences) allocation Round 4 process for 7GW of new installed offshore wind capacity.
“However, as things stand SiemensGamesa – who supply blades from an existing UK facility (Hull) – have had unprecedented success in this round and at the significant expense of their competitors seeking to establish facilities at AMEP.”
“Indirectly this has created a specific problem for SeAH, who have secured an order and need to start constructing their facilities in quarter two 2022.
“However, we cannot commit to quay construction until we have a minimum of two key manufacturers to provide guaranteed income streams to support project viability.
“Looking to the future, especially given that only last week the CfD auction was confirmed to become an annualised process, both ourselves and our prospective occupiers should be ideally placed to capitalise on imminent future opportunities.
“This welcome development should provide the level of activity to enable progress.”
Stephenson said his company’s greatest concern is that it will have to compete with a taxpayer funded development on the Tees.
He added: “Whilst recognising AMEP has been offered grant support from Government, the reality is that this pales into insignificance compared to the levels of subsidy with which we now have to compete against.”
“There is no escaping the fact that whilst AMEP is, by any measure – not least through its scale, design and location – the best product on offer, it is an expensive and complex development.
“Nonetheless, and as frustrating as the decision by SeAH may be, our collective resolve is not diminished.
“While inevitably the project will be delayed – through ongoing collaboration with both Government and the offshore wind sector we will leave no stone unturned in seeking to deliver a world class and world scale project.”
