VOC Port, Chinnamuttom harbour considered for serving offshore wind projects

CHENNAI: The Danish Energy Agency along with the Ministry of Non-Renewable Energy and the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has taken up an assessment study of the prospects of Thoothukudi VOC Port and Chinnamuttom fishing harbour in Kanniyakumari district to serve the proposed wind projects located off Tamil Nadu coast.

This comes as Denmark’s maritime spatial planning report for offshore wind projects suggested that ports in Tamil Nadu required significant infrastructure upgrades such as quayside and yards for the marshalling of wind turbine components. Earlier, four sites in the state were shortlisted for the first phase of the offshore wind project. The sites have relatively high wind speeds, reasonable depth to seabed and limited conflicts with environmental and social receptors.

VOC Port Chairman T K Ramachandran said the port authorities have been holding discussions with the Danish team and NIWE regarding offshore and nearshore wind installations over the last few months. “Due to our location and experience in handling huge numbers of wind blades and turbines, we are well-placed to support this project. VOC Port will completely become a green port with 100% of energy needs coming from renewable sources. Upgrading of infra depends on the kind of investors, who come forward, and their infrastructure and cargo requirements,” he added.

According to the maritime spatial planning report, the Thoothukudi Port and Chinnamuttom harbour could be developed as ‘operation and maintenance’ ports for offshore wind farms. The report states that in case of the establishment of further wind farms, a decision needs to be taken to develop an operation and maintenance hub, with more advanced facilities. These could cater to rare occurrences of blade or nacelle replacement activities.Last year, Danish firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners announced plans for a 1GW offshore wind farm which requires 80 wind turbines.