Offshore windfarm win for Norfolk port

Peel Ports Great Yarmouth has been selected as the port for construction and installation activities for the £2.5bn East Anglia ONE offshore windfarm.Up to £5m will be co-invested by ScottishPower Renewables and Peel Ports, allowing the facility to be ready to support activities for the 102-turbine windfarm in 2018/19.The news comes just over two months after Peel Ports acquired Great Yarmouth Port Company (GYPC).The investment will support the construction of primary infrastructure and groundworks. This includes the delivery of yard storage and marshalling, as well as the installation of heavy lift quay facilities.Components will be preassembled quayside and then loaded onto installation vessels which will depart from Great Yarmouth to the windfarm site, 30 miles offshore.East Anglia ONE is expected to create approximately 3,000 jobs, some of which will be greated as part of the works at Great Yarmouth.When complete, the windfarm will have a life span of more than 30 years and is planned to provide enough renewable energy to meet the annual electricity demands of the equivalent of 500,000 homes by 2020.Construction is set to start in 2017 with the first turbines installed by 2019.