Belfast harbour is to invest £90m to upgrade its port to serve a wave of wind energy projects and cruise ships as part of a £300m investment plan.
A new deepwater quay capable of supporting wind projects will be the largest part of an investment plan that also includes the construction of hundreds of homes at a site near the city centre.
Belfast has previously hosted wind power installation companies. Between 2013 and 2018, Dong Energy, later renamed Ørsted, used it as a base to install windfarms in the Irish Sea. After those projects were installed, the area was given over to cruise ships.
Joe O’Neill, the chief executive of Belfast harbour, said he expected to see wind turbines in the city again in late 2027 or early 2028.
Belfast had received “a lot of inquiries” from wind energy developers, he said. Belfast Harbour Commissioners, the non-profit trust that owns and runs the port, said 30 offshore windfarms planned within a 200km (125-mile) range of Belfast had a projected capacity of more than 30 gigawatts, enough to power 20m homes.
“The sector fell into a little bit of abeyance because there were no new projects,” O’Neill said. “There are a number of sites coming forward for the Irish Sea and the Republic of Ireland government. There’s a superb market opportunity.”
Belfast’s main existing rivals for the wind business would be Hull, on England’s east coast, and Mostyn, a much smaller port in Wales, O’Neill said.
The investment announced on Tuesday, funded from the port’s earnings, will serve developers of projects using standard fixed wind turbines. However, O’Neill said the harbour was excited by the prospect of floating offshore projects, including off the south-west of Ireland. Floating turbines, which are moored to the seabed, are predicted to become a significant source of renewable energy for the UK and Ireland.
Belfast’s port has played a crucial role in the city’s development. Its population rose from 75,000 in 1841 to 387,000 in 1911 as the city became a world leader in shipbuilding, according to Graham Brownlow, a senior lecturer in economics at Queen’s University Belfast. Brownlow last year credited the harbour commissioners with an early form of industrial strategy that helped the industry to grow.
Since that heyday, however, employment at the shipyards has fallen. The Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, was built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff. Ministers have said the remaining Harland & Wolff shipyard, which is due to build vessels for the Royal Navy, will be taken over by the Spanish state-owned Navantia.
Although the port still handles 70% of Northern Ireland’s seaborne freight, the broader city economy has shifted towards services.
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Part of the harbour plan is to house more people within walking distance of the city centre. The harbour said it would start efforts to build 325 homes on the north side of the River Lagan, with an additional 3,000 houses planned by 2030 across the 800-hectare (2,000-acre) harbour estate. Within the investment plan, £105m will go towards projects regenerating and developing the harbour estate and waterfront.
Cruise ships remain important business for the port, making it about £25m annually – 158 cruise ships called at the city in 2023.
“We don’t want to lose what we have in cruise,” O’Neill said.
