Wind-turbine retreat inspires job-saving plea

By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: May 19 2009 03:06

Trade unionists will make a last-ditch attempt on Tuesday to save more than 600 jobs in the UK’s fledgling renewable energy industry, urging government to invest directly in manufacturing capacity.
Jack Dromey, deputy secretary general of Unite union, will ask for millions of pounds in investment to save wind-turbine manufacturing when he meets Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy and climate change.
Last month the Danish wind company Vestas said it would close its factories on the Isle of Wight and Southampton in July, with the loss of 625 jobs, citing lack of progress in building onshore wind farms in the UK. Vestas will shift production to markets such as the US and China, where it is easier to build wind farms.
Mr Dromey said the closures would be “a disaster” for government attempts to boost “green-collar jobs” in manufacturing and services for renewable energy. It would damage the country’s prospects of generating more energy from low-carbon sources, he said.
“The government talks about how green jobs will help the country climb out of the recession, so we hope they will take action to save England’s only wind-turbine manufacturing capacity,” Mr Dromey added. He picked out for special mention the response by the Scottish parliament.
The parliament directed nearly £10m ($15m) of investment to a site to make wind-turbine towers that was closed by Vestas in Scotland this year. The money encouraged another Danish company, Skykon, to invest some £35m in wind manufacturing operations at the site, saving 100 jobs and forming about 200 more.
The government’s failure to attract investment to renewable energy manufacturing has been attacked by environmental groups and the opposition parties.
Unite will also urge the government to consider following the Spanish example of only allowing planning permission for new wind energy sites if the turbines to be built there are at least in part manufactured in that region.
The union said that would be allowed by European Union laws by invoking social and environmental clauses of the regulations.
Union leaders also want improved access to the electricity grid for wind farms, which at present can wait months or even years for a connection to be built.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “This closure is a commercial decision for the company and [it] does not reflect on the UK’s industrial policies.”
“The regional development agency Seeda has put together a special taskforce to help the employees of Vestas [if the closure were to go ahead].”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009