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Stuart Nathan
Features editor
The start of the wind of change
As Vince Cable and his fellow ministers launch a ‘manufacturing summit’ as part of the government’s much-trumpeted attempt to rebalance the economy, some welcome news comes with Siemens’ announcement of an offshore wind turbine plant in Hull.
A depressed region since the decline of the fishing and shipbuilding industries, the Northeast will welcome the arrival of a new industrial sector. Renewables are a vital part of another long-heralded shift, taking power generation away from its near-total dependence on fossil fuels and towards a more diverse future with lower-carbon generation.
The Hull plant will be a pioneer in technology as well. Based at the town’s Alexandra Dock, it will be the first plant to produce 6MW wind turbines — twice the capacity of the current largest turbines and, when complete, towering 150m above the sea. Hull City Council believes Siemens will bring 10,000 jobs, directly and indirectly, to the town. Such a large, modern plant will also play a role in bringing the cost of turbines down and reducing the energy needed to build them: both important factors in reducing the payback time and increasing the ‘carbon positivity’ of the turbines.
It’ll also increase the UK’s skills base in offshore renewables, which will, hopefully, be of benefit to marine power, an area in which the UK is also blessed. We’re among the windiest nations in Europe, with the huge swells of the Atlantic Ocean on the Western side, the enormous tidal ranges where the ocean meets the North Sea to the north, and the great potential of the Severn Estuary; it would be folly not to investigate and develop the technologies that could exploit these resources. As we’ve said before, many times, no single energy generation source will be able to meet the UK’s demands in the coming decades, and nuclear, wind, tide and wave will have to take their place alongside more efficient fossil fuel generation.
One thing that the Siemens plant doesn’t achieve, however, is an increase in home-grown IP. The company is a multinational — as is GE, which is also planning an offshore turbine plant in the UK — and its technology is brought in, rather than home-developed. The great advantage of developing your own technology and bringing it to the market is that the supply chain is developed alongside and a new sector carved out, bringing even more benefits in terms of skills and business.
This, with luck and a good tide, is what’s happening in the marine energy sector, with a whole raft of new technologies under test. And it could happen in offshore wind as well. Project Nova, a collaboration between Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde Universities, Qinetiq and the Energy Technologies Institute, is designing a V-shaped vertical-axis turbine which could change the face of offshore wind power and put the UK back in the forefront of wind generation — a position it sadly lost, partly owing to government scepticism and lack of support, in the 1980s. As the project reaches the testing stage, we can only hope that Vince Cable’s prodding of the financial sector to release more money to business bears fruit, and Nova can find the funding necessary to build their own plant. Hull came to prominence with the wind filling the sails of its fishing boats: maybe the wind can blow it, and the UK, even more good fortune.
Readers' comments (10)
Anonymous | 26 Jan 2011 11:42 am
A very good article, I too believe we can and should be world leaders in this. We should be aiming for self sufficiency in power generation as well as the technologies and manufactuting capabilities that go with it. As mentioned we have done it before and we can do it again.
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James Hawkins | 26 Jan 2011 1:28 pm
Good news for Hull and the UK. Lets hope that all the components and metals they need for the Towers and Turbines can be produced and assembled in the UK because at present Germany , Netherland and other areas are way ahead of the UK in supplying these services, despite the fact the Turbines are being installed around our coast. The Nova Project Universities should ensure they tap into the skills of the Oil and Gas engineers, Metal component and supply companies, as they will have already solved lots of the corrosion problems etc. they will encounter when working Offshore around the UK. Exciting times.
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realist | 26 Jan 2011 2:16 pm
Still pushing the climate change fraud.
Siemens really ought to know better, but I guess all those subsidies for products that are completely impractical and cannot compete on their _own merits_ explains a lot.
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Editor's comments | 26 Jan 2011 2:16 pm
As a realist, you should realise that even if you don't believe in human-influenced climate change, the issue of declining fossil fuel reserves still needs to be addressed.
Scott Paterson | 26 Jan 2011 2:16 pm
Very exciting news, I look forward to the opportunities this will bring.
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Stuart Whyman | 26 Jan 2011 2:45 pm
Excellent news for the UK and particularly Hull but what about Hydro-Electric power? We have reservoirs all over the UK storing and supplying water on demand, why can we not take a lead from Norway and generate electricity from this water at the same time?
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Ken Raven | 26 Jan 2011 3:15 pm
Great news for Hull and the additional impetus to reducing our use of non-renewables It would be nice to see an article on how the national grid is being upgraded to cope with the increasingly diverse generation sites.
I am not sure of the meaning of ‘carbon positivity’ may be an editor’s note could clear this up.
I do however resent the fact that I am considered a member of possibly “ the windiest nation in Europe”
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stephen burchell | 26 Jan 2011 8:51 pm
More subsidies for Siemens. The whole wind power farce is built on subsidies,paid for by industry.Without subsidies not one turbine would ever be built. More costs piled onto energy users for this incredibly expensive form of energy generation. It is a sick joke, but the subsidy junkies love it.
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P Field | 27 Jan 2011 9:45 am
Only Stewart Whyman's suggestion mentions a renewable that is not intermittent requiring complete back-up from conventional power stations. But good luck to Siemens and Hull. They will do well but they are being financed by us, the taxpayer and energy users and much of our money goes straight back to Germany in profits.
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tony smee | 27 Jan 2011 12:47 pm
I'd be more impressed if a huge high flying UK engineering company was investing in offshore Germany to use their cheap labour and skills.
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Peter C Hunter | 2 Feb 2011 1:59 pm
VertAx Wind Ltd. is a 100% British Company developing a 100% British designed 10MW offshore wind turbine generator that will likely use 100% British made products and components. See: www.vertaxwind.com
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