GE Renewable Energy has received the official planning approval for its offshore wind blade manufacturing facility on Teesside, north eastern England.
The plant will be operated by LM Wind Power, a business unit of GE Renewable Energy. Construction of the manufacturing plant is expected to begin later this year, once all contractual documents are completed. It is anticipated to become operational in 2023.
The facility is expected to create an estimated 750 direct jobs by mid-2022, along with 1,500 indirect jobs to support the supply chain around the factory, said the company.
LM Wind Power UK intends to recruit local workers for most of the roles in the new facility, and offer training on blade manufacturing techniques through its LM Centre of Excellence.
The new facility will produce 107m long blades for GE’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbines, which will be installed at the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm.
Three phases of Dogger Bank Wind Farm will have a combined installed generation capacity of 3.6GW, which is adequate to power six million homes in the UK.
Once complete in 2026, the Dogger Bank offshore wind facility is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, said the company.
For more information please visit EICDataStream.