Welsh freeport ‘would speed up floating wind rollout’

The growth of a floating offshore wind industry in Wales could be held back unless the Welsh government adopts a more enthusiastic approach to the freeports initiative, a minister has warned.

David TC Davies, junior minister in the Wales Office, told a meeting of the House of Commons Welsh Affairs select committee this morning (29 April) that he has met with floating offshore wind companies about locating manufacturing facilities in south Wales.

But he said this would happen “more quickly and easily” if the go-ahead can be given to designate one of Wales’ ports as a freeport, where the government has said standard custom rules and tax rates can be relaxed for goods if they are not then imported into the UK.

The government has said that it would like to see “at least” one freeport in Wales, to go along with the eight designated sites in England, but Davies said the Welsh government was less enthusiastic about the concept, which has been linked by critics to lower labour standards and links to crime.

He said: “A commitment to a freeport in Wales would really help and we need that commitment to be matched by the Welsh government.

“We would love to see ports in Wales being used to manufacture floating offshore wind machinery. It would be helpful if that commitment was matched by enthusiasm from the Welsh government and I sense that doesn’t exist at the moment.

“It (floating offshore wind) is going to happen lot more quickly and more easily if the Welsh government gets on board.”

He said that the Welsh government has held two recent meetings about floating offshore wind, with the Crown Estate, which he said is “very enthusiastic” about the technology.

Davies also rejected the suggestion that renewable energy development in Wales is being held back by grid capacity.

Paul Hewett, chief executive of renewable energy operator and developer Belltown Power, recently told the committee that “by far” the biggest problem facing the growth of renewable power in mid-Wales is lack of grid capacity.

Davies said if there is a particular problem, it will be raised with National Grid.

Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan defended the government’s recently adopted 2035 target to cut emissions to 78 per cent of 1990 levels as “tough target but realistic” with the major change likely to be more renewable energy and faster efforts to decarbonise industry.