Repower joins hunt for UK offshore base

GERMANY: German turbine manufacturer and developer Repower is searching Britain for a port to use as a manufacturing base to serve potential Round 3 contracts.

Repower's 5M turbine has been installed at the UK's Ormonde wind farm

Speaking to “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç, Repower VP of offshore development Norbert Giese said that with UK offshore wind a key market, the country would also become a major manufacturing base.

Repower currently has a large manufacturing facility at Bremerhaven in northern Germany.

"The UK has excellent knowledge of working in offshore energy, which we don’t really have in Germany," said Giese. "In Germany we have good mechanical and engineering skills. Putting the two together at a UK-based offshore manufacturing hub is a good combination."

The location of the site will be dependent on which Round 3 project Repower thinks it is likely to secure. The company is talking to developers at all Round 3 sites with the exception of Hornsea, which is being co-developed by Siemens.

The new facility could take the form of a 20,000-square-metre site employing hundreds of people and would take 15-18 months to set up.

Other manufacturers GE, Vestas, Mitsubishi and Siemens have all said they are looking at establishing manufacturing bases in the UK to serve the offshore-wind market.

 

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