THE Port of Ayr has enjoyed its busiest week in a quarter-century, buoyed by the shipping of wind turbine components for projects in south-west Scotland, its owner has revealed.
Associated British Ports said yesterday that, last Thursday alone, five vessels had called at Ayr.
A company spokesman estimated this would have been one of the port’s busiest-ever days.
He noted that the Port of Ayr had achieved its busiest week in 25 years.
ABP noted 10 vessels had called in over the past week - four for renewable energy projects.
And it declared that the last time the port had seen this level of activity was when 1.1 million tonnes of open cast coal was exported through Ayr in 1991.
ABP said: “Today, as the UK energy industry transitions to renewable energy sources, the boost in ship numbers has been a result of growing demand to serve wind farm projects under way in the south-west of Scotland.”
The company said that, over the course of the week, wind turbine components had been delivered for three separate renewable energy projects.
ABP noted that the MV Abis Bergen and MV Fehn Pollux had delivered wind turbine blades for the Brockloch Rig wind farms.
It added that the MV Arctic Rock called with wind turbine blades for the Dersalloch wind farm.
And the MV Dragonera delivered tower sections and the nacelle for the Minnygap wind farm.
It noted that the Port of Ayr had on Thursday, as well as the delivery of onshore wind turbine components, also handled coal and timber cargoes.
Port manager for Ayr and Troon Stuart Cresswell said: “Along with our traditional agribulk and mineral business, the wind turbine contracts we have secured this year have provided a fantastic boost to the port and all our local supporting contractors and suppliers.”
ABP short sea ports director Andrew Harston said: “Following our success in supporting additional cruise calls this year, we are now actively supporting the development of more renewable power in south-west Scotland.
“The location of ABP’s Ayrshire ports places them in close proximity to these onshore wind farms. The ports of Ayr and Troon are equipped and ready to work with renewable energy companies to serve their projects.”
He added: “This has been a strong period for our two Scottish ports. ABP is continually investing in the ports to underpin the important…role they fulfil in serving the needs of the Ayrshire region and the west coast of Scotland.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel