Siemens to invest £80 million in UK wind turbine production facility

Siemens plan to invest £80 million in building a production facility for offshore wind turbines. This follows the UK government’s budgetary announcement of £60 million for a competition to develop manufacturing sites for offshore wind turbines.

The facility could be built on the east coast or in the Northeast of England, and Siemens has said that up to 700 jobs will be created, and new turbines could be ready by 2015 to provide renewable energy for Britain. The UK government is keen to promote the UK as the world’s top destination for offshore wind investment and stay at the forefront of technology. The government hopes to foster this through strategic industrial intervention, which will hopefully create an industrial sector which will employ a highly skilled workforce of 70 000 people by 2020.

The Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, said, “This is a vote of confidence from one of the foremost companies in the offshore wind sector, looking to set up a base in the UK. More proof that we are exploiting the great natural resources that we have and creating the right conditions to attract investment. Siemens’ investment will help create jobs and help us meet our renewable energy targets.”

Siemens is not the only offshore wind manufacturer to move to the UK; Clipper plan to build the world’s biggest wind turbines, Mistubishi plan to invest up to £100 million in a R&D facility, and last week GE announced a €110 million investment.

Siemens are clearly committed to the technology, their CEO, Peter Loscher said, “In the foreseeable future the wind power market in the UK will be characterised by major offshore projects, and we’ll extend our market leadership with the new production plant.”

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