East Mids developer sells huge Scots port that could become Europe’s leading wind power and hydrogen facility and oil industry decommissioning site
Plans to create what could be the biggest green energy manufacturing hub and oil and gas decommissioning site in Europe look to have taken a step closer after a derelict Scottish port was sold by its Derbyshire-based owner.
Clowes Developments said it had sold the vast Ardersier Port site, near Inverness in northern Scotland, to a new team which wants to create what it calls the most important location in Europe for renewable energy and decommissioning.
The Derbyshire property developer said it sold the derelict 450 acre site along with a further 340 acres offshore, to business partners Tony O’Sullivan and Steve Regan.
It said it had sold the former McDermott fabrication site – described as the largest brownfield port in the 海角视频 – for an undisclosed sum.
It said Ardersier Port had been identified as one of just three sites on the 海角视频’s east coast which had the “size, scale, shape, and location” to allow it to become an offshore renewable energy hub.
The new owners, it said, wanted to make it "Europe's leading decommissioning, floating wind, fixed wind and hydrogen facility".
Plans were submitted to Highland Council to convert the former oil rig fabrication yard into a manufacturing ‘super-hub’ for offshore wind infrastructure, a decade ago.
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The 340 acre site and deep water quay, located on the Moray Firth 15 miles east of Inverness, was once home to the McDermott Fabrication Yard which built oil rigs and platforms in the 1970s and 80s.
At its height, McDermott employed 4,500 people but was closed in 2002 and the site was earmarked for a major new housing development. Those plans have since fallen through.
The new owners aim to use the site to decommission old oil and gas infrastructure and to support Scotland's renewable energy sector by providing manufacturing and other facilities for offshore and land-based wind farms.
Other green energy industries, such as green hydrogen, could also be based there.
In a joint comment Mr O'Sullivan and Mr Regan said it could also be used to recycle wind turbines, produce sustainable aggregates and concrete, and provide marine facilities to upgrade and maintain existing green energy infrastructure.
They said dredging would start this year and they hope the port will be open in 2022.
Gordon Arthur, a director at Clowes Developments, said: “We are delighted to complete the deal which will no doubt see the site prosper within the renewable energy market.
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“The port’s location, expanse and direct access to the North Sea presents a wealth of opportunities and we wish its new owners every success in their endeavours.”
Ardersier Port was opened by US engineering group McDermott in 1972, and was once the biggest private sector employer in the Highlands. A fall in demand led to the facility's closure in 2001.
Clowes said that in 2007, Highland Council approved plans for a 1,950 home development, along with a marina, hotel, visitor centre and community facilities including a primary school. Those plans never came to fruition.
In 2016, Clowes Developments bought the site out of administration for £5 million in a deal which it said safeguarded its future.
It said the authorities had more recently backed the port’s potential as a site for renewables-related development as part of the Scottish Government’s national renewables infrastructure plan.