New dock site for turbine blade storage as Siemens ramps up production for offshore wind industry

GREEN POWER: A wind turbine blade at Alexandra Dock in Hull

EXCLUSIVE

By Angus Young

Land reclaimed from the Humber over 50 years ago is set to be used for storing next generation offshore wind turbine blades before they are shipped into the North Sea.

Siemens Gamesa currently uses a quay close to its manufacturing plant at Alexandra Dock in Hull to store completed blades ahead of shipment. However with offshore wind farm development accelerating and the company’s new £186m expanded production facility now up and running, storage space there is being squeezed.

As a result, Associated British Ports is creating a new storage site the size of 18 football pitches on land at the eastern tip of Queen Elizabeth Dock. The land was originally reclaimed from the estuary as part of the construction of the dock in the late 1960s but has remained largely undeveloped since, with the exception of a terminal handling bulk materials such as coal.

SITE: The reclaimed land on Queen Elizabeth Dock ‘urgently needed’ for storage

In a letter to Hull City Council detailing the scheme, APB Humber’s planning and consents officer Jack Thompson says: “ABP, working in partnership with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, has identified an urgent requirement to extend hard standing areas of the port to handle wind turbine blades prior to export over the quay.

“The SGRE facility at Alexandra Dock includes a factory which produces blades for offshore wind turbines and production is increasing with demand. As part of SGRE’s expansion within the Port of Hull, ABP is currently developing a 25-acre site north of the Hull Bulk Handling Terminal and is now looking to develop a further 13.6 acre site to the south of the terminal to further support factory production and the export of finished blades.

“The approved extension by Hull City Council to double the size of Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Hull will result in a further 200 jobs and additional supply chain employment, further cementing Hull as a world-leading destination for manufacturing within the offshore wind industry. The creation of these green economy jobs and the new skills gained will further support the Hull 2030 Carbon Neutral Strategy.

EXPANSION: The Siemens Gamesa facility on Alexandra Dock

“Expansion and increased manufacturing capacity at the factory in turn requires additional supporting infrastructure within the operational ambit of the port, in order to handle and store blades before export via conventional shipping or wind installation vessels.”

With the new factory designed to make longer 108-metre blades, Mr Thompson adds: “This in turn requires additional storage space.”

The land at Queen Elizabeth Dock will be cleared of its current topsoil before being levelled with aggregates of chalk and stone. Studies of the site show it has little ecological value.

Since opening in 2016, the Hull factory has produced more than 2,000 blades. Work on the new storage site is expected to start in November and is due to be completed by April next year.