A Danish energy company plans to build a second wind turbine manufacturing facility on the Humber estuary.
Dong Energy’s proposed factory is to be at the 800-acre Able UK Marine Energy Park (AMEP) site at Killingholme, near Immingham, North East Lincolnshire.
It has signed a memorandum of understanding to build and operate an offshore wind facility on the site. Able UK has previously said the AMEP scheme would create 4,000 local jobs.
Construction work has started across the estuary in Hull on a £310m site for wind turbine production by Siemens.
Dong Energy already operates wind turbine support facilities in Grimsby, about nine miles from Immingham. Dong, which will be building the 1.2 gigawatt Hornsea Project One, 120km off the Yorkshire coast, as well as the 580 megawatt Race Bank farm, off Norfolk, said they hoped to create a “sizeable hub with multiple suppliers”.
It is has already been announced that Siemens’ Hull factory will be supplying blades for Hornsea Project One and ScottishPower Renewables’ £2bn East Anglia ONE scheme. This week Siemens released more details of the 1,000 jobs they expect to create in Hull. Around 400 people are already employed in offshore wind operations and maintenance roles in Grimsby.
The proposed new facility is to include a large quay to load turbines on to ships bound for planned North Sea wind farms.
Business and civic leaders welcomed a memorandum of understanding which should see Dong Energy become the anchor tenant of the £440m Able Marine Energy Park, in north Lincolnshire. Among those to welcome the news was James Wharton, the minister for the “Northern Powerhouse”, who said it was “another significant step for the Humber Enterprise Zone and further shows that firms are realising the benefits this Zone offers.”
Humber Local Enterprise Partnership chairman Lord Haskins said the agreement was “a boost to the local economy and confirms in terms of location, connectivity and infrastructure, we are developing our Enterprise Zone along the right lines”.
Mark O’Reilly, Team Humber Marine Alliance chief executive, added: “The dream of the Humber being a world-class cluster for offshore wind in the UK is now becoming a reality with both banks of the Humber estuary establishing significant sites and facilities to support this burgeoning industry.”
Dong’s head of strategic supply chain Joachim Steenstrup added: “Able Marine Park is very close to what you would come up with, if you had to do a painting of the optimal cluster for the renewables industry on a blank canvas – close to the sea with abundant quayside and adjoining land to manufacture, assemble, and store goods. In our dialogue with Able, it has become clear we share the same thoughts on reducing the cost of electricity from renewables by creating a sizeable hub with multiple suppliers.”
The first quays are expected to be working by 2018. In March work started to upgrade the roads to AMEP and the port of Immingham.
