Scotland and England are competing to create hub for $52 billion offshore wind industry.
Leith, the port area of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and the northeast English coastal town of Hartlepool are striving for an investment worth 150 million-pound ($237 million) from a Spanish wind-turbine maker Gamesa Corp Tecnologica SA. It is estimated that the industry may be worth 33 billion pounds over the next eight years. Europe’s third-biggest wind-turbine maker, Gamesa, is planning to make the factory, maintenance center and logistics operations in Britain as the nation attempts to increase the wind-power production to 31,000 megawatts by 2020. Approximately, 18,000 megawatts will come from offshore wind what is significantly higher compared to 1,500 megawatts now currently generated.
Gamesa is assessing advantages of Leith and Hartlepool and is conducting talks with officials, however Gamesa’s decision will be reached explicitly according to commercial criteria.
The prospect of this project is to create 1,200 jobs at this very moment when Britain records the highest unemployment rate over a period of 16 years.
[mappress] Offshore Wind Staff, February 23, 2012