Last Thursday (15 July), we welcomed the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change and Ian Levy, MP for Blyth Valley, on a tour of our National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth.
They witnessed first-hand the size and scale of the latest offshore wind technologies being tested in the UK, including LM Wind Power’s 107m blade and GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbine nacelle. In March 2018, GE announced its ambitious plans to bring this disruptive technology to market in just over two years, which they achieved thanks to the pivotal role of ORE Catapult, enabling supply of the turbine to the world’s largest wind farm, Dogger Bank. Developments like Dogger Bank provide the necessary foundation from which the UK will strive to achieve Net Zero, creating momentum for a strong UK supply chain, thousands of jobs and paving the way for large-scale, indigenous manufacturing.
Hosted by ORE Catapult Chief Executive Andrew Jamieson, the Minister and My Levy toured the 100m blade test and 15 MW powertrain test facilities. Mr Jamieson underlined how vital continued investment in our next-generation of world-leading test assets is to achieving the UK’s Net Zero targets by 2050.
Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said:
“Offshore wind is a crucial part of our energy mix and it is going from strength to strength. The £160 million of support the government has provided for the sector is already helping to drive investment, and it is great to see that money supporting jobs and livelihoods in the North-East. Visiting the Catapult test facilities in Blyth, I was so impressed by the scale of the work undertaken there – both in terms of ambition and size. The Catapult will continue to be a major driving force, as we work towards our ambitious climate change targets and continue to build back greener from the pandemic.”