FEATURE
Wind in our sails
EXCLUSIVE BY DAVE ROBSON
A wind of change is blowing on Teesside – and a turbine blade company breezing onto Redcar ’ s former steelworks site says it can ’ t wait to employ hundreds of local people .
LM Wind Power – a GE Renewable Energy business – is to build a massive factory on the vast Teesworks complex , producing 107m-long wind turbine blades for Dogger Bank Wind Farm , located just 80 miles off the North Sea coast .
And when production begins in 2023 , it wants most of the 750 jobs to be filled by locals .
Speaking exclusively to Tees Business , LM Wind Power UK MD Andrew Bellamy said many factors , including the local workforce and the development site , made it an ideal choice for what will be the global firm ’ s 14th factory .
And he said the process to choose Teesside began two years ago , even before the “ cherry on the cake ” bonus of the area being granted freeport status .
He said : “ The main thing blade factories need is a lot of land . Blades are big , they ’ re hard to move , the factories themselves are big . And when you start looking around the UK for sites next to water , capable of having a factory like ours , there aren ’ t many .
“ You also need a reliable workforce and that was one of the major draws of the Tees area , the enormous pedigree of manufacturing .
Development – an aerial image of Teesworks today , site of GE Renewables ’ new blade-making factory .
“ We spent months reviewing our shortlist sites and in lots of ways , the Tees site showed itself to be a compelling option .
“ The potential for a freeport was a consideration in the later stages , but the business case needed to stand up before that . Fundamentally , the Tees already had an extremely strong case .”
Acknowledging the help received from “ very positive characters ” such as Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen , Mr Bellamy ’ s keenness to get started is clear , but there are procedures to go through first , with a planning application submitted last month . But once permission is secured , what then ?
“ We ’ d expect to have spades in the ground to start the construction phase later this year . Then the whole of next year will be spent putting the buildings in – the steelworks , the foundations , the structure . And while we won ’ t put an exact date on it , 2023 will see us building blades .”
As for how many , “ it ’ ll be in the hundreds , that ’ s for sure ” he says . And they won ’ t have to go far to be loaded onto ships , with the new factory just 400m or so from a new 1km heavy lift quay .
The complex ’ s vital statistics are impressive – a 78,000 sq m site , with the main building ’ s production hall 330m long and just under 100m wide . There ’ ll also be a separate “ postmould ” building to run some finishing processes .
Originally Danish boat builders who moved into blades during Denmark ’ s wind power boom , LM Wind Power now employs 14,000 people in 15 factories worldwide , including North and South America , Canada , India and China .
On Teesside , the estimated 750 roles should include 600 production operators – basically , the team
28 | Tees Business