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LM Wind Power, part of GE Renewable Energy, will set up and operate the plant in Teesside.
The facility will be dedicated to the production of LM’s 107m turbine blades, the longest in the world and a key part of GE’s Haliade-X, the most powerful offshore wind turbine in operation today.
The turbines will be used in the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, located between 125km and 290km off the east coast of Yorkshire. The three phases of the farm will have a combined installed generation capacity of 3.6GW, enough to power 6m UK homes. When completed in 2026, it will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
GE Renewable Energy estimated that the new plant, set to open and start production in 2023, could create up to 750 direct renewable energy jobs and up to 1,500 indirect jobs in the area.
The move is designed to support the government’s goal of 40GW of offshore wind power by 2030. As part of that plan, Teesside was recently designated as one of the UK’s new freeports. The blade manufacturing plant will be located at Teesworks, described as ‘an ideal location to serve the vast offshore wind potential of the North Sea’.
Hugh McNeal, CEO of trade organisation Renewable UK, said “GE Renewable Energy’s new blade turbine manufacturing plant will transform a former steelworks site on Teesside into a high-tech clean energy powerhouse, creating thousands of highly-skilled jobs in our UK supply chain. This announcement marks the start of the next generation of offshore wind manufacturing.”
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