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This week the UK will announce the successful bidders for Round 3 of the Crown Estate's offshore holdings.  It's being billed as "Gordon Brown to launch £100bn wind energy programme."

Guardian version here.

What caught my eye is here


But the Crown Estate will not require developers to source a proportion of the turbines and other components from domestic manufacturers unlike other countries, including Spain and China.

The paucity of Britain's low carbon industry was exposed last year, when Dutch firm Vestas closed England's only turbine manufacturing plant.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate said the government body, which owns the UK's seabed, was holding a supply chain roadshow for British manufacturers around the country, starting later this month. Working with regional development authorities, companies will be informed what components will be needed by the energy companies to help British industry benefit from the construction programme.

The UK hasn't had a wind manufacturing industry for decades, period.  Vestas didn't shut a manufacturing plant, it shut a blade facility which had been unsuccessful.  Blade plants are the easiest in the industry to establish anywhere in the world, as already done.

UK offshore is very important for the future, but there is nothing more important than the immediate reestablishment of STRONG activity in the onshore sphere.  Without that you don't get experienced experts, and the supply chain for offshore takes longer to establish.  Fer crissakes, the UK doesn't even have the level of resource assessment skills that No. Europe has, much less skilled service engineers and techs.  That comes from building turbines on land, period.

The UK is a blind dog with its olfactory nerves removed, thinking it hears other dogs rooting around for bones.  Morning, all.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Jan 4th, 2010 at 06:51:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
For the UK it's always groundhog day, back to the future, all we've got to look forward to is the past.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Jan 4th, 2010 at 08:06:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Note for instance that Vestas have chosen Dunkirk as their base for the construction of the Thanet windfarm in UK waters.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Mon Jan 4th, 2010 at 04:03:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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