The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 79

Guest:  Francis Paonessa, Capital Projects and Engineering Director, Associated British Ports

Modern ports for a sustainable future

In today's podcast we once again build on Labour’s first King’s Speech and dig into the UK’s ambitions for an energy transition.

The government has placed energy security and the rapid move away from fossil fuels high on its agenda for this parliament underlining its pre-election manifesto pledges to do just that. 

This set out the route towards energy independence, stretching towards a clean energy future by 2030 with Great British Energy, its newly launched publicly-owned energy company driving investment into onshore wind, solar power and offshore wind power.

It’s certainly an ambitious plan. Some might say over ambitious. However, it is an ambition that will require the entire infrastructure sector to buy into as we move the dial towards a new era away from the dependence on imported energy.

Offshore wind sits at the heart of delivering this ambition as the most expensive but arguably least community disruptive source. Current plans set out by the last government aimed for an additional 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the UK by 2030 – a tripling of the current 28GW installed. 

Big numbers indeed. Which makes the UK’s port network critical to accessing this huge resource, providing the shipping capacity, the skills and expertise and of course the infrastructure required to bring the power back to the land. 

It’s a huge challenge and a huge opportunity for the port sector, which, by the way, is also simultaneously at the heart of the UK’s efforts to drive growth and smooth the flow of post-Brexit trade and exports into mainland Europe. 

Investing to improve this infrastructure is clearly going to be critical. So let’s hear more. My guest today is Francis Paonessa, Capital Projects and Engineering Director at Associated British Ports. With 21 ports under its management across England, Scotland and Wales, ABP is the UK’s largest port operator and as such is deeply involved in smoothing the flow of UK freight but also in providing the infrastructure and expertise that will become the backbone for the UK’s plans for energy transition.

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