Isra-Mart srl : Gamesa nears final decision on British offshore turbine plant

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The UK could be celebrating another renewable energy windfall later this month, after Gamesa said it hopes to confirm at the end of October where it plans to locate a new offshore wind turbine factory.

The Spanish wind turbine manufacturer has been eyeing up a number of potential European sites for its new factory, and recently met with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to discuss the possibility of locating a plant in Scotland.

The decision could make the company the fifth major wind turbine manufacturer to confirm plans for a new British factory after GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi, and Clipper Windpower all announced earlier this year that they were intending to invest in the UK.

In an email to BusinessGreen.com, a spokeswoman from the firm confirmed the UK was still in the running, adding that a decision could be made by the end of this month.

"Gamesa is thinking about its offshore industrial plan and the UK is an option. However, at the moment we are considering a number of different locations," she said.

"Our Chairman said some days ago that we will take a decision about the offshore industrial plant in the next few weeks, maybe at the end of October."

The government's high profile Round 3 plans to build a huge array of deepwater wind farms over the next decade are likely to boost the chances of the factory being located in the UK, particularly given that Gamesa is working on plans to build a 5MW offshore turbine in time for the first Round 3 projects, before then rolling out larger 6MW to 7MW machines at a later date.

Just yesterday, Gamesa announced it has signed a teaming agreement with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, to build and install its first offshore 5MW turbine off the US coast, which will f ollowed by a second prototype at a European site.

However, as with Siemens, GE and Mitsubishi, Gamesa's final decision on whether to invest in the UK is likely to be influenced by whether the the government's £60m competition to upgrade UK ports survives the October 20 comprehensive spending review.