Siemens to double size of Hull offshore wind turbine blade factory
The Siemens Gamesa wind turbine factory in Hull is to be doubled in size following an investment of £186m.
The investment will create 200 new jobs and allow the company to manufacture the next generation of offshore wind turbines and blades greater than 100 meters. Expansion work is expected to be completed by 2023.
The Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbine blade factory officially opened in December 2016.
Among current projects receiving blades from Hull is Hornsea Two for customer Ørsted off the Yorkshire coast. When complete in 2022, the 1.4 GW Hornsea Two will be the world’s largest offshore wind power plant, with 165 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines providing clean electricity to power more than 1.3 million homes.
The Minister for Investment, Lord Grimstone, said it is "fantastic news for the people of Hull and the Humber" that these jobs "will last for generations."
He added: "The North Sea is giving us wind, which is allowing us to create major new businesses and Humber with the Able Marine Park is going to be one of the top centres for this."
GRI Renewable Industries is the second confirmed company to build facilities at Able Marine Energy Park, Hull, with £78 million investment in an offshore wind turbine tower factory, creating up to 260 direct jobs.
The offshore wind manufacturers and GRI Renewable Industries will receive grant funding from the Government’s Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support scheme.
It says the announcement continues to deliver on the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution and meeting his target of quadrupling the UK’s offshore wind capacity to produce 40GW of energy from offshore wind by 2030 – enough to power every home in the country.
This investment follows an announcement made in early July when the UK Government announced over £180 million of private sector investment for offshore wind manufacturers SeAH Wind Ltd and Smulders Projects UK who will build facilities located on the Humber and at Wallsend in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, creating and safeguarding more than 1,000 jobs.
In March this year, the Government also announced up to investment to establish two new ports on the Humber and on Teesside to enable manufacturers to build the next generation of offshore wind projects.
Together these new ports will have the capacity to house up to seven manufacturers to support the development of the next-generation offshore wind projects, directly creating around 3,000 new jobs each.