Associated British Ports and px Group are seeking businesses in the net zero supply chain and energy transition to set up in the Port of Barry’s low-carbon Clean Growth Hub in South Wales.
The project aims to transform a large area of the operational port into an area of low-carbon, high-growth infrastructure investment. The partners say the site has over 100 acres of development land earmarked for companies who fit the criteria of being part of the net zero supply chain or specialists in battery materials, rare earth processing or carbon capture.
The partners say they ‘share the vision of a thriving, sustainable industrial hub focused on the industries of tomorrow, creating jobs, mobilising inward investment and boosting local prosperity and opportunity.’
The Port of Barry already has an operational 5 MW solar array, with further opportunity to scale up solar and wind power. ABP also has a partnership at the port with Hynamics, an EDF Group subsidiary, to evaluate developing low-carbon hydrogen production and distribution to help reduce local industries’ CO2 emissions.
Henrik L. Pedersen, chief executive of Associated British Ports said:
Ports are at the heart of the UK’s green energy transition. This development ensures that Barry will play a greater role as we look to deliver a lower-carbon future. Our vision is for ABP’s ports to be the green hubs which bring together progressive companies that can benefit from collective infrastructure and expertise.
The site will be operated and maintained by px Group, the company behind Saltend Chemicals Park on the Humber, which has attracted around £2 billion of investment since px purchased the site in 2018. Saltend is the location of the Hydrogen-to-Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend) project, a 600MW low-carbon hydrogen plant that recently received planning permission from the local authority, with its emissions captured and stored using carbon capture technology. px will also offer the same operations and maintenance services – plus energy management, engineering support, and technical services – to investors at the Port of Barry.
Geoff Holmes, CEO of px Group, said:
We have a shared, transformational vision for ABP’s Port of Barry that has world-class, low-carbon companies at its heart, built on spacious brownfield land that can be developed immediately.
The Port of Barry was once the UK’s leading port for shipping coal and now is a growing location for the UK’s 21st century green energy transformation and a gateway for trade and industry into Cardiff, South Wales, and beyond.
