New plan to put wind turbines out at sea

Jun 5 2008 by William Green, The Journal

THOUSANDS of jobs could be created in the North East by a massive expansion of offshore wind farms, experts predicted last night.

Stephen Wilson, from the respected New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Blyth, said the region has the skills and experience to lead the world in building offshore wind turbines while the regional development agency said the developments could leave the North East in “pretty good shape”.

The assessment came after the Government agency Crown Estate, owner of the seabed around Britain, revealed 11 sites have been earmarked as potentially suitable for new offshore wind farms – including off the North East coast. They could be operational from 2015.

Successful bidders will get exclusive rights to develop farms with the Crown Estate paying up to 50% of planning costs and funding work to speed up developments. Up to 25 gigawatts of capacity could be produced – up from 8GW currently being developed – as the Government aims to expand offshore wind farms to provide enough to power every British household.

Five thousand turbines will be erected offshore, with the biggest site in round three of the scheme, to be off the North East coast.

Mr Wilson said the North East’s history of building ships and North Sea oil rigs was “ideal” with the region having the skilled workers able to develop, build and maintain machinery that could cope with the extreme marine environment.

Companies along the supply chain would benefit with the Tees, Tyne and Blyth offering routes to move equipment and maintain offshore stations, said Mr Wilson, NaREC’s wind and marine director.

“The North East has a real opportunity to become a centre for offshore wind,” he said. “And NaREC is becoming a technology development centre for offshore wind and we are investigating the options for creating a campus in Blyth to allow new technology developers to cluster around NaREC.

“If we want to maintain a lead from a manufacturing and carbon reduction point of view we need to do these big bold projects.

“The sea is an area that is very lucrative to the UK to develop because we have got wind resources and we would hope it would become the start of a new manufacturing base in the UK.”

He is currently at the American Wind Energy Association conference in Houston, Texas, to attract companies to the North East’s unique benefits.

His efforts come as American energy firm Clipper Windpower develops the world’s largest offshore wind turbine in Blyth. It also comes on the back of a renewable energy course launched by Northumberland College in Ashington to train wind farm technicians.

Regional development agency One NorthEast said the offshore wind plans were “fantastic news.”

Mark Pearson, its business strategy manager, added energy was a huge opportunity for manufacturing and engineering – and developments could leave the region in “pretty good shape”.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said wind power was already a UK “success story” with the country set to become a world leader in operating offshore plants. He said they would help fight climate change and energy security.

THE PLANS

:: Eleven areas earmarked as having potential for offshore wind farms.

:: Up to 25 gigawatts of energy produced, as Government aims to provide up to 33GW in all.

:: Offshore wind is key to UK contribution to a European target to source 20% of all energy from renewables by 2020.

:: Developers have to submit bids to the Crown Estate – which owns the seabed around the UK – next year with the first sites expected to operational by 2015.

:: Winning bids get exclusive rights to develop farms with the Crown Estate helping with costs.