Cromarty Firth Port Authority is expected to announce securing approximately GBP 9 million in bank funding for its GBP 20 million project, which will turn the port into a place for handling offshore wind turbines and employ up to 400 people, the Scotsman writes.
The project involves expansion on nine acres of land and building berthing facilities there to support the construction of the Beatrice and Moray offshore wind farms. The facilities are planned to be complete and ready for the start of turbines’ installation in 2015.
More than just one bank has shown interest in financing the project, the port’s chairman Sandy Cumming is cited by the news site as saying. In order to complete the project, the port is looking to attract grants, but is also using its own financial reserves.
The construction work is scheduled to commence at the beginning of 2014, thus tenders would be issued in the late summer and a contract awarded before the end of this year.
However, a problem occurred in respect to new working positions, which will open in two years from now. Namely, there is a great shortage of people skilled to work on these positions in the area, so the port is now working closely with training agencies to overcome this issue and to avoid importing the necessary workforce.
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Offshore WIND Staff, February 11, 2013; Image: CFPA