Tugdock and Sarens have secured funding from the Crown Estate towards developing a heavy lift operations and maintenance (O&M) hub at Associated British Ports’ (ABP) Port Talbot in Wales, UK.
The companies received this funding via the preliminary round of the Crown Estate’s Supply Chain Accelerator scheme.
Supported by the likes of ABP and RWE, the facility aims to provide support for heavy lift equipment used in floating offshore wind projects lined up in the Celtic Sea. Port Talbot is deemed an ideal location due to its access to the Celtic Sea, as a result reducing transit times and operational costs.
The Supply Chain Accelerator is a GBP50 million (USD63.8 million) fund established to speed up and safeguard the early-stage development of UK supply chain projects that service the offshore wind sector.
“The Tugdock and Sarens O&M facility is poised to boost the competitiveness of Port Talbot in both the national and global floating offshore wind markets in the years to come,” said Lucas Lowe Houghton, chief revenue officer at Tugdock. “By leveraging this opportunity, we aim to unlock local steel and concrete manufacturing by offering a range of solutions for assembly, loadout and launching.”
Tugdock has developed submersible platforms, which are made up of modular road transportable steel space frames using patented inflatable buoyancy units. Able to be used as additional buoyancy modules or as submersible platforms of up to 120 m x 120 m, these are lighter, shallow drafted, quicker and more cost-effective as opposed to steel hulled barges, floating docks, or large port infrastructure developments.
Sarens’ director of global operations, technical solutions and engineering, Carl Sarens added: “This all-encompassing service model reduces the need for clients to engage multiple contractors, simplifying project management and reducing overall costs.” He added that further jobs will be created at the hub.
