UK: Scotland to Get Turbine Parts Foundry

As the Herald Scotland reports, Scotland could become a worldwide exporter of offshore wind turbines. Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) are ready to invest hundreds of millions of pounds to develop a foundry proposed by the RGR Foundry.

The plant would produce the cast-metal parts for nacelles by using cutting-edge technology, and would become the only one of its kind in Europe. It would be located next to Methil docks in Fife, and create 150 new working positions.

SSE and BiFab are ready to invest along with various other backers from outside Scotland that have already committed, subject to RGR’s planning permission. The RGR Foundry expects to get the permission by the end of June, and the plant would start producing nacelle components next year.

The idea is that these components would be combined with other turbine parts for supplying wind farm developers in the UK and abroad.

Antos Glogowski from the RGR said that the company had developed a technology that would enable a Scottish plant to compete with China, whose two specialist foundries are the only ones in the world that would be competent to transport the components for the 5MW-plus turbines.

He said: “The plan is to build a very large foundry with modern European technology that’s semi-automated and specialised to provide the castings for the offshore wind industry that is competitive with Chinese castings but of higher quality.”

Glogowski, whose Chinese company ADL Supplies provides components for BiFab’s jackets, thought that planning permission would be relatively undemanding, since the plant would run on electricity and would create almost no pollution or noise.

“It’s something the industry really needs. There’s nothing wrong with RGR’s thinking. We’re sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens,” said John Robertson, chief executive of BiFab.

A spokeswoman for wind farms developer SSE said: “We are aware of the planning application but it’s at a very early stage. Securing the supply chain for offshore wind is always something that we are interested in.”

If the foundry goes ahead, Glogowski said that the order book was already full for the next five years, and that the plan would be to extend the plant in the future.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND staff, May 9, 2012,