Newcastle set to build world’s largest turbine blades

A Californian company is to build a factory in the north-east of the UK that will make the world's biggest wind turbine blades.

The UK government has part-financed plans for the factory in Newcastle.

Clipper Windpower has been give funding to design the site, which is expected to employ up to 500 people by 2020 in the manufacturing of blades for the giant ten megawatt Britannia offshore wind turbine.

The project is one of several that have been announced, following another round of government investment in offshore energy.

Visiting the site where Clipper today confirmed it will employ up to 500 people by 2020 to manufacture blades for the massive 10 megawatt ‘Britannia’ offshore wind turbine, the Prime Minister said: “I welcome Clipper’s ground-breaking announcement to build the largest wind turbine blade in the world on the banks of the Tyne.

“The UK is a global leader in offshore wind power, and the North East is at the forefront in providing the skills, expertise and enterprise to capitalise on this rapidly expanding market, which has the potential to create thousands of future green jobs.

"The combination of our strong natural wind resource and the substantial backing we’ve given the industry mean the investment conditions in the UK are unrivalled." Regional development agency One North East has ploughed £2.1m into the project, with the Government contributing a further £4.5m.

Alan Clarke, chief executive of One North East, said: “Today marks the first stage in the creation of what we believe will be thousands of new manufacturing jobs in the offshore wind sector, founded on the North-East’s skills and ready-made sites.” James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North-East Chamber of Commerce, said: “This is a really exciting day.

What we’re seeing here is the start of something that’s going to be huge.

“Within a few years, we will look back at how we transformed ourselves to move the region beyond steel, in the same way that we now look back and see how we transformed ourselves to move beyond coal and shipbuilding.” Greg Clark, Conservative shadow minister for energy and climate change, welcomed the investment, but said it should have happened years ago and the UK was lagging behind in the sector.