Land deal signals future for specialist industry park at Peterhead

Scottish Enterprise (SE) has secured 30 acres of land in Peterhead to develop a key industrial park for the emerging renewables and offshore decommissioning market.  SE will work closely with global energy services company ASCO to promote the availability of serviced sites and nearby deepwater quays and lay-down area.

The economic development agency plans to invest £2m in a new access road and infrastructure to provide serviced sites for one of Scotland’s most promising sectors.

The development is part of the Energetica project, an ambitious public-private partnership which is being driven by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future to create a  low carbon  leisure, housing and technology zone north of Aberdeen.   Energetica is part of Scottish Enterprise’s wider agenda to position Scotland as a global centre of low carbon energy technologies.

A masterplan and planning application will now be prepared and if demand for sites is as strong as initial enquiries suggest, the first phase of infrastructure work is expected to start later this year.  If all goes to plan, the first phase of the Energetica Industry Park is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011.

David Littlejohn, director at Scottish Enterprise said:  “This is a major milestone in the development and provision of industrial sites to support the growth of offshore wind and marine renewable energy companies and the important decommissioning sector.   

“Identified as a key location in the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan, Peterhead offers cost effective development opportunities which will allow Scotland to exploit these major opportunities.“

ASCO group managing director for UK and Europe Walter Robertson said, “Servicing the renewables industry offers huge opportunities for both businesses and local communities in the North-East.

“ASCO, as a global leader in integrated Oil and Gas Logistics, has over 40 years of experience which is readily transferable to the renewable energy sector.  We have the skills, the essential safe systems of work, the plant and equipment as well as the quayside infrastructure to accommodate the marine and land based requirements of the Renewables Industry.

“Over the last three years we have successfully supported a number of inland wind power projects and we are keen to make use of our existing facilities in support of offshore wind and wave developments."

Scotland has around 25 per cent of Europe’s wind resource potential and is a leader in deepwater offshore wind technology, with experience of building, installing and maintaining the world’s first deepwater offshore windfarm, the Beatrice demonstrator project.  Plans to build an ambitious offshore wind test centre in Aberdeen Bay are also progressing well with Scottish Enterprise support.

Over the next 20 years, the offshore industry will begin to decommission many of the installations that have been producing oil and gas. Total costs involved in decommissioning the UK continental shelf are estimated at £15–20 billion. Scotland’s oil and gas expertise should mean it can capture a share of that market. 

The park at Peterhead will complement existing renewable energy manufacturing facilities at Methil in Fife and will provide much needed resources for this emerging sector to realise its full potential in Scotland.