7 September, 2026 – Highlands and Islands Enterprise has approved more than £778,000 in Scottish Government funding to support the front-end engineering design study for BW Ideol’s planned floating foundation manufacturing facility at the Port of Ardersier.
The approval, announced on 7 September 2026, follows close collaboration between Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Development International (SDI), the international arm of Scottish Enterprise, to secure the project for Scotland.
The funding supports a front-end engineering design (FEED) study that will inform the next phases of development of the planned facility, which is dedicated to the serial production of BW Ideol’s Damping Pool® concrete floating foundations.
A facility designed for serial production
Optimised for construction methods such as gantry slipforming, precast and automated prefabrication, the planned facility is designed to deliver one floating foundation every 12 days from a single production line, equivalent to approximately 500 MW of annual capacity. The site has the potential to accommodate a second line.
Once operational, the facility could create around 1,200 direct jobs in the Highlands and support the structuring of a broader regional supply chain.
BW Ideol’s commitment to the site dates back to a partnership agreement signed in September 2021, securing exclusive access to the Port of Ardersier for concrete foundation manufacturing.
Serving Scotland’s floating wind pipeline
The Damping Pool® has been identified as the preferred floating foundation for the Buchan Offshore Wind project (960 MW), co-developed by BW Ideol with BayWa r.e. and Elicio, which secured its onshore planning consent in May 2026.
Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of BW Ideol, said:
“This first public sector backing is an encouraging signal for our Ardersier Floating Foundation Factory. It supports a key phase of our feasibility studies and reflects growing institutional confidence in industrial-scale floating wind in Scotland. The Highlands have all the assets to host a leading manufacturing hub for concrete floating foundations, and with the Buchan Offshore Wind project having just secured its onshore consent, our ambition is clear: to build these foundations locally, close to the projects they will serve, and to anchor a lasting industry in the region.”
Stuart Black, chief executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, said:
“This particular investment supports a critical step towards establishing large-scale floating wind manufacturing in the Highlands. Projects like this have the potential to create high-value jobs and build a strong regional supply chain. This in turn ensures the Highlands and Islands can capture long-term economic benefit from Scotland’s offshore wind opportunity.”
Read the full announcement on the Highlands and Islands Enterprise website: https://www.hie.co.uk/news-and-blogs/news/2026/september/07/public-sect…