Government support for wind industry includes £6 million for Vestas

The funding for Vestas will support 150 jobs, however it is unlikely to prevent Vestas closing its blade manufacturing site – also on the Isle of Wight – with the loss of some 600 jobs, at the end of this week.

The site has been occupied by a sit-in of workers for more than a week and on Wednesday Vestas will be seeking a court injunction to evict its employees.

Protest rallies have been organised ahead of the that hearing – outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in London this evening and outside the court in Newport on the Isle of Wight on Wednesday morning.

The workers, supported by the RMT union and climate campaigners, want the site to be nationalised. They are protesting against the closure of the country’s only wind turbine manufacturing plant at a time when the Government has been talking up its commitment to renewables.

As Greenpeace climate change campaign Robin Oakley put it: “[The week before last] Labour promised Britain would install thousands of wind turbines in the coming years. Are ministers really now saying they'd rather buy those turbines from abroad than make them here in the UK? Letting this factory close is like a football manager saying he's up for the cup then dropping his only goal scorer. It just doesn't make sense."

Pressed on this apparent contradiction in a BBC interview on Monday, the Climate Change Secretary suggested there was little point in making wind turbines in the UK at the moment because ‘nimbyism’ is preventing the deployment of wind turbines on a meaningful scale.

“We can’t be the centre for onshore wind manufacturing if all around the country people are saying ‘we don’t want onshore wind’,” he said.

In spite of this, the package of support for the wind energy industry announced by the Climate Change Secretary included £1 billion of loans for onshore wind farms.

The money will be provided over the next three years through three UK-based banks – RBS, Lloyds and BNP Paribas Fortis – working with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

It is intended that the cash, part of the additional £4 billion of EIB lending to support UK energy projects announced in the Budget, will help get building started for onshore wind projects which have been hit by the credit crunch, particularly small and mid-sized wind farms.

In addition, DECC will be making up to £10 million in grants available for the development of offshore wind technology – part of the £120 million announced in the renewable energy strategy last week.

The £6 million for Vestas Technology UK, more than £3 million of which will be provided by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), will be the first grant awarded from this pot. The money for Vestas is subject to agreement on suitable grant offer conditions.

“The money for the development of offshore wind manufacturing will help us generate green jobs on top of our success as the leading country in the world for the generation of offshore wind,” said Ed Miliband.

"Alongside these proposals, we are reforming planning laws, finding new ways of working with local communities and are determined to persuade people that we need a significant increase in onshore wind as part of the UK's future energy mix.”

Figures from Greenpeace, issued this week, are reported to show that Conservative councils are the most likely to block planning applications for onshore wind turbines.

The environmental campaign group’s figures are reported to show Conservative councils approved 44.7 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind schemes but blocked 158.2 MW, while Labour-controlled councils approved 68.3 MW and rejected 62.6 MW.