A&P Falmouth, part of A&P Group, has announced it is collaborating with Morwind, a specialist wind developer based in south-west England, to explore the potential local opportunities and benefits that can arise from the development of floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.

Falmouth, the largest deep-water harbour in SW England, offers direct access to the Celtic Sea a major source of offshore wind energy that will be developed over the next few decades.

The Crown Estate has announced plans that competition for the floating wind projects will begin in 2023. In April the UK government outlined their ambition for 5GW of floating wind by 2030 in the British Energy Security Strategy.

A&P Falmouth and Morwind will use their combined knowledge, extensive experience and strong stakeholder relationships, both in the region and nationally, to explore and influence the nature and scale of local opportunities associated with future floating offshore wind development.

Drystan Jones, Director of Port Development Falmouth & General Manager Falmouth Docks and Engineering Company said: "A&P Falmouth’s vision is simple -– to help make Falmouth a prime hub for the floating offshore wind sector, offering fabrication, construction, maintenance, port and marine services to developers and service companies.

"Floating offshore wind is fast transitioning from concept to reality and A&P is delighted to be collaborating with Morwind to explore opportunities in the Celtic Sea."

Ben Gowers, Managing Director of Morwind said: "This agreement is clear evidence of Morwind’s commitment to sustainable development and creating a positive local impact.

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"We have no doubt that A&P Falmouth have an important role to play in the roll-out of floating wind here in the south-west.

"Working and collaborating with A&P Falmouth as local partners, we want to drive investment and ambition.

"Together we plan to directly engage with the local supply chain, stakeholders and communities and understand how we can successfully add value, encourage investment and social impact through supporting skills development and jobs in the new economy."

Last month specialist marine contractors Keynvor MorLift based at Falmouth Wharves deployed two LIDAR buoys 60 miles offshore between Cornwall and Wales.

The buoys, which are 5.1m high and 2.4m wide, are expected to remain offshore for one year.

Using atmospheric and oceanographic measurement capabilities, the lidar buoys capture data, such as wind speed and direction at multiple heights using wind profiling lidar, air and sea surface temperatures, ocean current speeds and directions, and wave heights and directions.

Neil Farrington, Strategic Offshore Development Manager at Celtic Sea Power: "The data from these Floating LiDAR systems will benefit Cornwall, South Wales and the wider South West by feeding into a bank grade regional wind resource model.

"This model will then be validated by external experts (at Wood Group) to support investment decisions for [floating offshore wind] sites across the UK Celtic Sea region.

"It will also help reduce the time it takes to install floating offshore wind farms."