* New
‘'Round 3' rights granted in 9 UK coastal
zones
* Potential for 6,400 additional turbines generating
32GW far exceeds previous plans
* £75 billion offshore wind
industry could support up to 70,000 clean energy jobs by
2020
* These are high value jobs in manufacturing, research
and engineering, installation, operation and services
The UK’s
long term energy and climate security was strengthened
substantially today as The Crown Estate, owner of the UK’s coastal
seabeds, granted rights to energy companies to develop the biggest
expansion of wind energy ever seen in the world.
The announcement has the potential to see an additional 32GW of
clean electricity feeding into the UK grid, on top of 8GW from
previous rounds. 32GW is enough offshore wind energy to supply
nearly all the homes in the UK and will mean an extra 6,400
turbines. Investment in UK offshore wind overall could be worth
£75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.
The next generation of offshore wind farms that will be developed
under the licenses announced today will require larger and more
efficient turbines, capable of generating 5MW of power.
It was hailed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Energy and
Climate Secretary Ed Miliband, who met The Crown Estate in London today.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:
"Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have
already put us ahead of every other country in the world. This new
round of licences provides a substantial new platform for
investing in UK industrial capacity. The offshore wind industry is
at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be
worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020. This
announcement will make a significant and practical contribution to
reducing our CO2 emissions and the Government will work with
developers and The Crown Estate to support the growing offshore
wind industry and help remove barriers to rapid development."
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said:
"Our island has one of the best wind energy resources in
Europe and today’s news shows that there’s a huge appetite for
capacity to be built here. We now need to make sure we’re poised
to harness the potential that appetite brings for business for UK
companies and new green jobs. We did it before with oil and gas in
the North Sea and we’ll do it again for offshore wind."
Ministers including Ed Miliband will be jointly hosting events
with The Crown Estate around the country that bring together
developers and UK businesses.
Also announced today by the Government were £3 million of grants
to further support the offshore wind supply chain. The Department
of Energy and Climate Change and the Department of Business,
Innovation and Skills will award funding to Burntisland
Fabrications Ltd (£1.5m) and Tees Alliance Group Ltd (£1.5m).
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science & Innovation, said:
"These grants are part of a package of support to ensure
the UK - and UK manufacturing in particular - benefits from the
innovative market we are creating. The turbines we need have not
been designed yet. Our goal is to encourage their design and
manufacture on our shores."
"Last month, we pledged £15m for the blade testing
facility at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) and
further grants will follow to support this promising industry. The
UK is quite simply the place to be for wind energy: we've
got the science, the engineering, the support and the weather!"
BiFab aim to set up a manufacturing facility at the Energy Park
in Fife Scotland to make parts for offshore turbines, creating an
additional 300 jobs in the region.
TAG will develop a production facility at their Haverton Hill
Facility in Teesside, creating up to 200 jobs.
Notes for editors
1. The developers who have signed exclusivity zone agreements
with The Crown Estate are:
* Moray Firth Zone, Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd which is 75%
owned by EDP Renovaveis and 25% owned by SeaEnergy Renewables –
1.3 GW
* Firth of Forth Zone, SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by
SSE Renewables and Fluor – 3.5 GW
* Dogger Bank Zone, the Forewind Consortium equally owned by each
of SSE Renewables, RWE Npower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft –
9 GW
* Hornsea Zone, Siemens Project Ventures and Mainstream Renewable
Power, a consortium equally owned by Mainstream Renewable Power
and Siemens Project Ventures and involving Hochtief Construction –
4 GW
* Norfolk Bank Zone, East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd equally owned
by
* Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft – 7.2 GW
* Hastings Zone, Eon Climate and Renewables UK– 0.6 GW
* West of Isle of Wight Zone, Eneco New Energy – 0.9 GW
* Bristol Channel Zone, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary
of RWE Innogy – 1.5 GW
* Irish Sea Zone, Centrica Renewable Energy and involving RES
Group – 4.2 GW
2. For more information on the Round 3 announcement see The Crown
Estate website (http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/round3)
3. 1GW of offshore wind would power around 680,000 homes. This is
based on an average household consumption of 4,500KWh and an
average load factor of 35%.
4. Carbon Trust figures on jobs and investment are taken from
CT’s July 2009 report “Focus for success: a new approach to
commercializing low carbon technologies”, p.53
www.carbontrust.co.uk/Publications/pages/publicationdetail.aspx?id=CTC752
5. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is central to the
UK Government’s leadership on climate change. Through our UK Low
Carbon Transition Plan we are giving householders and businesses
the incentives and advice they need to cut their emissions, we are
enabling the energy sector’s shift to the trinity of renewables,
new nuclear and clean coal, and we are stepping up the fight
against fuel poverty.
Detail on the grants:
TAG is pursuing the development of a world class, state of the
art, automated tubular production facility for the rolling and
welding of large diameter tubulars and the construction of
foundations, (monopiles, tripods, jackets and transition pieces)
at their Haverton Hill Facility in Teesside.
The existing TAG facilities offer developers an integrated
manufacturing, marshalling, assembly and load out capability
perfectly situated on the River Tees on the east coast of the UK,
being very well placed for the largest planned offshore
developments for the UK.
The local skill base in this type of work is second to none
and this welcome development will bring much needed jobs to the region:
50 permanent direct jobs at TAG within the new facility and
this could increase to 100 depending on shift patterns / workload.
In addition to that project construction work generated out of
the production facility will create regular project jobs of at
least another 50 and then of course there will be sub contractor
and suppliers jobs created.
In summary, 50 permanent TAG
production jobs, increasing to 200 when sub contractors and
suppliers are included.
BiFab have a vision to create one of the best mass manufacturing
facilities in Europe for the supply of Jacket sub-structures for
the offshore wind sector. The BiFab strategy is to set up a
manufacturing facility at the Energy Park in Fife Scotland that
can deliver over 100 jacket sub-structures per year commencing
2011, making BiFab one of the key providers for offshore
sub-structures covering a range of 12 Mtr to 80 Mtr water depths.
The BiFab objective is to make a serious contribution to ensuring
that the UK is in a strong position to win major projects in this
potentially large market, leading to the creation of thousands of
highly skilled jobs as well as making a significant contribution
to the Scottish economy.
* Develop a product portfolio based
on existing experience and designs, but optimising these designs
with reference to :
o Mass-manufacturing to ensure
competitive manufacturing cost and a sustainable industry.
o
Scalability so that the product would offer bespoke solutions
irrespective of the depth of water and size of turbine it needs to
support
* Develop in the long term fully-automated
manufacturing facilities
* Develop a strong supply chain
local and international.
* Continually assess skills and
educational requirements. Expand on our apprentice training
programmes.
* BiFab currently employ 50 apprentices operating
at our Burntisland and Methil facility.
BiFab are recognised as one of the leading manufacturers in the
supply of jacket substructures for the offshore wind industry we
have technology and experience and most importantly a proven track
record in delivering structures for the renewable industry. At
present, there is a good opportunity for the UK fabrication
industry to build up on its experience from Oil & Gas
sector and to transfer these skills to offshore wind market
securing the future of the UK fabrication industry for the next 15
to 20 years.
Department of Energy and Climate Change
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Place, London, SW1A 2AW
Public enquiries +44 (0)300 060
4000
Textphone +44 (0)20 7215 6740 (for those with hearing impairment)
Contacts:
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Phone: 0300 068 5219
nds.decc@coi.gsi.gov.uk