GERMAN TURBINE MAKER TAKES UK CITY

Siemens selects Hull for wind turbine plant
Andrew Bounds, January 20, 2011 (UK Financial Times)

"The UK’s first offshore wind turbine plant is set to be built in Hull after Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate, announced that the city was the preferred site for a proposed factory.

"Siemens and Associated British Ports, which operates the Yorkshire port, signed a memorandum of understanding to build the plant at Alexandra Dock. The news is a boost to the UK renewable energy sector. Several investors have delayed plans because of uncertainty about how much subsidy the government would give renewable energy."

The UK govt will build the ports and the wind industry will build a New Energy economy. (click to enlarge)

"The Hull plant would be the first to make 6MW turbines, double the capacity of today’s biggest and, at around 150m tall, higher than all but nine buildings in the UK…Final confirmation…would place the UK at the forefront of windpower technology…[I]t could bring up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs to one of the poorest places in England…

"With capacity set to increase from 5 gigawatts to 37 gigawatts in the next decade, the UK is becoming the largest market for windpower and companies are anxious to build close to where the huge machines will be deployed. Siemens is part of a consortium developing a zone off Hornsea near Hull…"

Assets like this warrant investment. (click to enlarge)

"Siemens [is the leading supplier of wind farms in the UK, with 40 per cent of capacity, but up to now all offshore turbines have been built in Denmark]…[It] already employs 200 people in Manchester working on an offshore electricity grid, has a £3m wind power training centre in Newcastle and research and development centres at Sheffield and Keele universities…

"General Electric of the US and Mitsubishi of Japan are also looking for factory sites…[T]he investment could put Hull and Yorkshire at the forefront of wind power technology…"