A major milestone has been reached in the latest in a series of wind farms off the East Anglian coast with an announcement that its turbine blades will be built in the UK.
ScottishPower has formalised a £1bn turbine supply agreement with Siemens Gamesa worth more than £1bn for the construction of 64 of SG 14-236 DD offshore wind turbines.
They are destined for ScottishPower's £4bn East Anglia TWO offshore wind farm off the coast of Suffolk.
The 115m blades will be built at the Hull factory, which employs around 1,300 people. The wind farm is ScottishPower’s third offshore wind project in the southern North Sea and lies 33km off the Suffolk coat.
East Anglia ONE - 37km from Lowestoft, the hub of ScottishPower’s operations - is already in operation and East Anglia THREE is under construction. It lies 69km off the Suffolk coast and makes landfall at Bawdsey.
East Anglia TWO will have the capacity to generate up to 960MW of green electricity – enough to power the equivalent of almost one million homes.
ScottishPower has announced it is doubling its investment in the UK – from £12bn to £24bn – between 2024 and 2028.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower will fire up our industrial heartlands and break down barriers to growth in our hard-working towns and cities.
“It will strengthen our national security – protecting our children and grandchildren from the climate crisis, and impact this will have on their future prosperity.
“By acting decisively and early, the UK has an opportunity to lead the world in the industries of the future – working in partnership with businesses like ScottishPower and Siemens Energy – creating real energy security, cutting energy bills and building jobs and supply chains in the UK.
“But we can’t move alone – and at COP I will lead efforts to protect Britain from climate change by also working with other countries to accelerate the global clean transition to tackle the causes at its root.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This investment is a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s growing renewables sector and will power our clean energy future – supporting skilled jobs and green growth in Hull and beyond.
“Offshore wind is the backbone of our clean power 2030 mission; every new turbine in our waters helps us boost energy security, protect consumers, and tackle the climate crisis.
“We are making the UK a clean energy superpower, backing industry to build cleaner, global supply chains, and to drive investment into our country.”
ScottishPower chief executive Keith Anderson said: “Today is tangible proof of the importance of Britain’s Clean Power Mission – our East Anglia projects are delivering UK jobs, UK supply chain contracts and UK green energy.
“Getting more projects like East Anglia TWO off the blocks quicker will turbo-boost the UK’s supply chain, giving companies like Siemens Gamesa the confidence to invest in facilities like this blade factory in Hull.
“Britain’s clean power targets are achievable but demanding. We’ve doubled our investment and are ready to play our part with Government as it gets barriers out the way to build more projects like this, alongside the electricity networks needed to ferry green, homegrown power across the country.”
Collectively, these windfarms – all of them equipped with Siemens Gamesa turbines – will produce enough clean, green electricity to power the equivalent of more than three million homes.
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