Region can be clean power ‘world leader’

The North East can be a “world leader” in clean power under a multi-billion pound vision to install hundreds more wind turbines in the North Sea, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.

Massive plans were announced on Thursday for the leasing of more sections of the seabed off our region’s coast for new wind farms.

It is estimated that the development could equate to 462 new wind turbines being erected and generate six gigawatts of power, enough for around a quarter of all the homes in England and Wales.  

The Crown Estate, which manages the country’s seabed, expects that its newly-announced leasing round will result in the creation of up to 10,000 direct jobs in the wind sector and deliver a £12 billion boost to the economy.

Speaking at the Port of Blyth’s Energy Central Learning Hub on Thursday, Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said that this next stage of wind farm expansion would double the North East’s wind power infrastructure.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “What is at stake here is UK jobs versus those jobs going to the rest of the world. It is incredibly important as a milestone. Not just because of what we are rolling out in offshore wind and what it will do for clean, affordable energy powering millions of homes, but also economic development and the injection that provides.”

Last December marked 25 years since the UK’s first offshore wind turbines were erected off the Northumberland coast, since then wind has grown to become the largest source of electricity generation in Britain.

The Crown Estate has signalled its intent to lease up to 16 gigawatts worth of wind opportunity off the North East coast by 2030 and have those turbines installed up to 2040, with the potential for new North East wind farms to provide up to 50% of UK electricity needs when operating at full capacity. 

Mr Labbad added: “This is an opportunity for the North East to be a world leader. Offshore wind was born in this country in Blyth and I think it is fitting for the North East to be a world leader in this technology and a recipient of all the economic benefits that will come as a result.”

The news won the backing of energy secretary Ed Miliband, who said that boosting offshore wind capacity means places like Blyth could “show how the country can learn the lessons from the war in Iran and cut our dependence on fossil fuels and protect people from future shocks”.

Labour energy minister Michael Shanks said that allowing more of the seabed to be used for offshore wind will deliver 10,000 “jobs of the future” for young people.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness wants to double the number of green jobs in the region from 25,000 to 50,000 over the next decade – also including 8,000 in heat networks, 5,000 in low-carbon housing and retrofitting, and 2,000 in electric vehicles.

After leaving Blyth, Mr Shanks travelled down to Tyneside to see manufacturing work under way on a mammoth piece of wind farm infrastructure. 

A 58-metre-tall steel jacket that will act as a foundation for a huge substation at Scottish Power’s East Anglia TWO offshore windfarm is under construction at the Smulders yard in Wallsend, under a contract worth more than £60 million.

The minister said that the clean energy sector offered a chance to restore manufacturing jobs to communities like Wallsend, which suffered badly from the decline of shipbuilding.

He told the LDRS: “It is not just about delivering the clean, secure power that is critical for this country at this moment more than perhaps it has ever been, it is also industrial policy. Communities like this have felt the force of de-industrialisation for far too long and the job losses that go with it. We are determined to turn that around.

“When we look at the fantastic wind turbines we have here, too little of that has been built in this country and we have not had the jobs that go with it. We are determined to change that.”

Ms McGuinness called it a “monumental” day for the North East and was especially happy to see Energy Central also hosting a jobs fair for primary school children as the wind farm announcement was being made.

The mayor added: “It is a huge vote of confidence in our ability to deliver green energy infrastructure. We know we are the only region who can do everything from the research and development of new technology, right through to the servicing of the offshore wind farms themselves. That is why we have been chosen and what it means is 10,000 new jobs for young people growing up in this region who see it as their future. It means over £12 billion of investment into our local area and it means more energy security.”

Glen Sanderson, the Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “Blyth was the centre, the hub of exporting energy over the last four centuries, to be the most important coal exporting port in Europe in the 1930s. Today it has picked up that mantle of clean energy and is making itself prominent and important again. Time will show, soon I think, just how hugely important Blyth is to this clean energy drive.”