Wind turbine plan 'bonanza for shipbuilders'

Jun 6 2008 by William Green, The Journal

THE North East shipbuilding industry was last night urged to take advantage of a predicted “economic bonanza” sparked by a massive expansion of offshore wind farms.

The New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Blyth said identification by the Government of 11 offshore zones – including off the North East – as potentially suitable for wind farms was a “major wake-up call” for shipbuilders.

The call came as the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) predicted an “economic bonanza” with thousands of new jobs in the region.

Some 5,000 turbines will be needed round the UK with more than 800 deployed off the region’s coast alone as part of an £80bn programme to boost renewable energy production, according to NaREC.

A spokesman said the North East was ideally placed to capitalise on the proposals as it could service three North Sea sites from engineering bases on the banks of the rivers Blyth, Tyne, Wear and Tees.

“These announcements are a major wake-up call for the North East’s shipbuilding industry, which has the opportunity to develop specialised installation vessels suitable for managing the installation of offshore turbines,” said NaRec. It also said thousands of jobs in the region would be created, including engineers, technicians and specialised offshore operations workers.

North East businesses have already played a central role in offshore wind, including IHC Engineering Business in installing flagship turbines off the Scottish coast, said the cutting-edge centre.

NaRec is leading the way in research and preparing for a major expansion of turbine production – but warned more training was needed, above that currently offered at Northumberland College.

Yesterday David Hewitt, director of Marine Design Centre, based in Newcastle, said: “This is good news for the marine sector in the North East and potentially leads to the development of support vessels, and the design of support vessels, in this part of the region.

“Currently the skills are there to meet the design needs. The region produces particularly more naval architects than any other part of the country from Newcastle University.

“We have played our part in ensuring there are career opportunities for these graduates in the sector. They will be the lifeblood of the sector in years to come.”

The BWEA said: “It is an economic bonanza for the North East. We are talking about thousands and thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs.”

A spokesman said individual wind farms in offshore zones could produce the same amount of energy as a nuclear of gas-fired power station.

“Virtually all of the North East could be powered,” he added.

Energy company E.ON, which operates onshore wind farms in the region, confirmed it would be participating in the process for developing offshore sites.

A spokesman said the firm’s Blyth offshore wind farm was a UK first and proved turbines could operate around the coastline – and provided invaluable lessons in building larger offshore stations.

Npower Renewables, which is behind onshore sites in Northumberland, confirmed its interest having already built turbines off North Wales.