The first shipment of XXL monopile foundations for the 1.1 gigawatt (GW) Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm has arrived at the Port of Leith.

This delivery marks a significant new phase of offshore construction and the start of operations for Forth Ports' recently completed £150 million world-class renewables hub.

The entire foundation package for Inch Cape, which consists of 72 components, will be handled at the port. The facility will be used to offload, marshal, and store all the project's foundations before they are loaded out for installation.

The first eight XXL monopiles, each measuring up to 103 metres long and weighing approximately 2,300 tonnes, arrived via a heavy transport vessel which docked at the new, deep-water Charles Hammond Berth. The berth was developed as part of a major investment programme at the 175-acre site, including £50 million committed specifically to securing the Inch Cape contract—Forth Ports' largest offshore wind contract ever.

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John Hill, Project Director of Inch Cape, said: "This first monopile delivery into Leith kicks-off a key phase of offshore construction, and we are delighted to be the inaugural project to utilise Forth Ports' renewables hub."

The flagship Scottish project will use 54 XXL monopiles with transition pieces, and 18 three-legged jacket foundations with three pin piles per jacket. All are being delivered to Leith, where more than 100 people will be working on the project marshalling the components.

Installation of the massive foundations is scheduled to start before the end of the year, utilising the Jan De Nul heavy lift vessel Les Alizés, and will continue into 2026.

The new Charles Hammond Berth features a heavy lift capacity of up to 100 tonnes per square metre and is supported by 175 acres of adjacent land for logistics and component handling. Forth Ports' sister facility in Dundee will also support the project in 2026 as the pre-assembly and marshalling hub for the turbines.

Derek Knox, Regional Director for Scotland, Forth Ports Limited, called the arrival a "momentous day" for the team: "We have transformed Leith into a world class renewables hub and the Charles Hammond Berth has been created specifically to handle the world's largest offshore energy vessels. It is fantastic to see the berth and laydown land doing what they were built to do."

Inch Cape is jointly owned by ESB and Red Rock Renewables. Once fully operational in 2027, the wind farm will comprise 72 Vestas 15MW turbines and will generate almost five terawatt hours of energy each year or enough to power roughly half the homes in Scotland. First power is expected in late-2026.