ABP, px to develop Clean Growth Hub at Port of Barry

Associated British Ports (ABP) and px Group, the owner and operator of Saltend Chemicals Park, have launched plans for the Clean Growth Hub at the Port of Barry 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 site has over 100 acres of development land earmarked for investee companies that specialise in rare earths processing, battery materials manufacturing, and for manufacturers who are part of green energy and net zero supply chains, as well as for developing Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) business models.

ABP’s Port of Barry already has significant low-carbon infrastructure in place and under development. The port currently has an operational 5 MW solar array, with further opportunity to scale up solar and wind power.

ABP also has an ambitious partnership at the Port of Barry with Hynamics, an EDF Group subsidiary, to evaluate developing low-carbon hydrogen production and distribution to help reduce local industries’ CO2 emissions.

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 home to blue-chip companies on site, such as INEOS, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Vivergo and BP. 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. Pensana’s rare earths project has also received planning permission to develop at Saltend.

px will also offer the same operations and maintenance services – plus energy management, engineering support, and technical services – to investors at the site.