Vestas The End

[EMDEE]

I see that Vestas has a half page advert in today’s Scotsman. I quote:

“As an island nation, Britain has always turned to the sea for new paths to greater prosperity. Today, offshore opportunities are looking more promising than ever.

Britain’s plentiful wind resources are a valuable source of homegrown energy that can help ensure a greener, more prosperous future for us all.

According to official estimates, wind and other renewable energy sources could cover as much as 35% of Britain’s total electricity needs by 2020. And clean wind power promotes energy independence and creates jobs right here at home.

We know because Vestas makes the technology that turns wind into electricity for Britain and the world. Join Vestas in releasing Britain’s new energy - before our old energy runs out.”

If the future of windpower is as rosy as Vestas are saying here, why are they closing the Kintyre plant? Campbeltown has one of the best natural harbours in the UK, and if, as they say, the way forward for windpower is to be offshore, surely Kintyre must be in an excellent position to serve developments on the west coast of the UK and Ireland.

[Kintyre Forum News]

Can anyone confirm that there is good news about the proposed closure and the factory won't close with another Danish company taking over????

[rtodd31]

well my hubby isn't getting paid off anytime soon if this helps but who knows with vestas

[katya]

On BBC Scotland news this morning it said that Vestas have postponed the closure because they are still in talks with another Danish company

[Kevin Mc]

On BBC Scotland news this morning it said that Vestas have postponed the closure because they are still in talks with another Dutch company

Good news, though I suppose it will prolong the uncertainty....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7698814.stm

[katya]

That's true Kevin, but at least it is another 2 months wages at a rather expensive time of year - and hopefully the talks will be fruitful.

[Tom B]

"Vestas has received an order for an offshore wind power plant with a total
capacity of 300 MW. The wind power plant, Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, consists of
100 units of the V90-3.0 MW wind turbine and will be located 11.3 km offshore
from Foreness Point in the Thames Estuary on the easternmost part of the Kent
coastline, United Kingdom.

The order has been placed by Vattenfall Wind Power and comprises design, supply,
construction, testing and commissioning of the 100 wind turbines as well as a
five-year operation and maintenance contract. Vattenfall is responsible for
foundations, offshore and onshore cables with substations and offshore
installation vessels.

“We are pleased to be supplying turbines for the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm,
which is one of the first ‘round-2' projects to be implemented in the UK,” says
Anders Søe-Jensen, President of Vestas Offshore A/S, and continues: “The order
cements Vestas' dedication to the offshore wind market and we are of course
delighted that a professional and important player such as Vattenfall Wind Power
once again has chosen to work with Vestas.”

Delivery of the turbines is expected to take place during 2009 and 2010, and
installation of the wind power plant will take place in 2010.

Anders Dahl, Head of Vattenfall Wind Power, states: “As Vestas is one of the
world leaders within wind power manufacturing, we feel very confident in
choosing Vestas to supply turbines for the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm. Being one
of the first 'round 2‘ projects to be built, it is of utmost importance that the
Thanet Wind Farm becomes a success and it is our firm conviction that the
agreement with Vestas helps to ensure the commitment needed to make this a
reality.”

[Kintyre Forum News]

Perhaps Vestas announcement a few months ago could be the best thing that happened? Certainly heard yesterday from a worker they are 98% sure of the takeover which will see the site developed to a larger factory. Nice news for a change.

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Articl ... 4?UserKey=

Hopes high of saving turbines plant
potential buyer outlines his plans to 100 workers facing redundancy at Kintyre factory

Published: 23/12/2008

Hopes were rising last night of a reprieve for nearly 100 staff at the closure-threatened Vestas fabrication works in Argyll.

Jesper Oehlemschlaeger, chief executive officer of potential buyers, EVO, met workers in the wind turbine tower factory canteen at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown, to outline his plans.

He said afterwards he is close to agreeing purchase terms in principle with Vestas but the deal is subject to proposals, understood to involve the development of roads, port facilities and other infrastructure, which require to be agreed by Scottish Development International early in January.

He said he is “98% sure” the takeover will proceed and all the existing staff will be taken on.

He said: “If we take over the facility, it is our ambition to develop the facility and create Europe’s largest tower supplier.

“Campbeltown could be a great place to develop a facility four or five times as big as it is now over the next few years.”

He said the Vestas plant had been limited by being attached to a particular wind energy supplier. EVO was independent and free to sell to others.

A statement from Vestas in Malmo, Sweden, said the factory was not capable under its business model of generating satisfactory earnings but it had agreed to postpone ending production pending the possible takeover.

It said: “Negotiations continue right now with EVO and Welcon A/S” – an associated steel fabricator – “with the support and assistance of SDI/HIE with the object of securing a positive future for the Campbeltown plant and the employees – the outcome of these talks will be advised as soon as possible.”

Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid: “The signs are extremely optimistic.

“From my involvement in the negotiations I am hopeful that agreement will be reached which will save the jobs at Machrihanish.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are delighted that Vestas is continuing to negotiate on securing a positive future for the facility at Campbeltown.

“These negotiations are some way from conclusion but Scottish Development International and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are working hard with the company to ensure a favourable outcome for Scotland.”

Vestas Towers president Knud Bjarne Hansen said the decision to make the announcement last night was so that it would be public before Christmas.

He said: “It has been a cardinal point for the new owner that all the staff remain intact when the business is taken over.”

He said he hoped the transfer would take place “in the first quarter of 2009”.

[Kevin Mc]

I really hope that does happen. Even the current employees keeping their jobs sounds too good to be true, let alone a few hundred more being employed. Maybe Campbeltown's fortunes are changing for the better with this and the £6m regeneration money. About time too

[Kintyre Forum News]

Good article in the Sunday Herald today. FIngers crossed!

http://www.sundayherald.com/business/bu ... 33.0.0.php

£50m turbine deal could bring jobs boom to Kintyre
Second Danish firm seeks subsidies to take on plant. By Steven Vass, Deputy Business Editor.

THE KINTYRE peninsula is at the centre of an estimated £50 million plan to create a world leader in offshore wind turbine manufacturing, the Sunday Herald has learned.

Danish company Welcon plans to acquire and upgrade the seven-year-old Vestas plant near Campbeltown, creating a jobs boom in a remote and deprived part of Scotland that would boost the 100-strong workforce to between 300 and 400 within two years.

The Sunday Herald understands that Welcon also proposes to upgrade Campbeltown harbour and the local road network.
advertisement

The deal, which Welcon's owner described as "very likely", is said to hinge on final agreement to a substantial investment by public bodies.

The news comes as Vestas, the Danish company disposing of the plant it established in 2001, attacked "Scottish bureaucracy" in the planning system, and criticised the former administration for doing nothing to help save its investment until it was too late.

Having reached an agreement in principle with Vestas last month, Welcon is now in late-stage talks with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and inward investment agency Scottish Development International (SDI) to agree a future for the Machrihanish plant.

Jesper Ohlenschlaeger, chief executive of Welcon parent Skykon, said the company hopes to reach a final agreement by next month. Welcon is already a major turbine manufacturer in Denmark but this would be its first investment in the UK, having failed in an attempt set up a plant near Dundee several years ago.

Ohlenschlaeger said: "In order to deliver to the onshore and offshore markets in the UK, we need to deliver this facility. I foresee that in 2010 going into 2011, the plant will be three or four times the size it is now, but in order to drive that kind of business you need to have a lot of things in place.

"We need to have SDI and HIE to commit to give us a subsidy to build the plant and the infrastructure around Campbeltown such as the harbour and the roads."

Alan Reid, the Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll & Bute, said: "We are nervous about counting chickens before they have hatched, but it looks promising. If it all comes off, it will be tremendous news for Kintyre."

The deal would see the plant expanding its current manufacturing capability from onshore turbines that generate 2MW to 3MW of electricity, to offshore turbines that can generate between 5MW and 7MW. But Oehlenschlaeger said that market standard could easily reach 10MW within the next couple of years, and that the plant would have to be able to deliver turbines of whatever size the market dictated.

He would not be drawn on the purchase price or the exact size of the investment, saying only that it would be in the "two-digit million pounds" range. But an expert in wind turbine manufacturing told the Sunday Herald that the plant expansion and infrastructure upgrades would cost between "£40m and £50m, and very possibly even more".

Ohlenschlaeger also refused to comment on the amount the public sector was being asked to invest, except to say it would be a minority investor. This would be a departure from HIE's model of investing the majority of funds, retaining ownership of plants and leasing them to an operator. This was the arrangement when Vestas first set up in Kintyre in 2001, with HIE putting up over £6m of a £9m investment.

Knud Bjarne Hansen, president of the towers division at Vestas, was nevertheless critical of the way the Scottish authorities had handled his company's time on the peninsula, which started off profitably but later become loss-making when orders for turbines from developers dried up.

He said: "Over a period of time, the building permits for our customers didn't come because of delays in things like planning and environmental permissions.

"When we announced that we were putting the facility under observation in August 2006 it also laid off a quarter of the workforce and switched some of the manufacturing overseas, we were trying to search for a way out of our problems. But we only got politicians to the table after we announced we were going to cease manufacturing in August 2008."

Hansen praised the SNP government's efforts at strengthening the renewables sector, singling out energy minister Jim Mather, but he said it had been "too little too late" for his firm.

Alan Reid, whose colleague and former Scottish party leader Nicol Stephen had been in charge of energy policy in the previous administration, countered that he had met with Hansen when the company first raised the alarm in 2006.

He said: "I don't think that the present government is any more willing to override environmental or RSPB Royal Society for the Protection of Birds concerns than the previous one, and I wonder what the previous administration could have done differently.

"Of the planning applications that were being granted, Vestas didn't seem to be winning the contracts for supplying them. And unlike Welcon, it will not make towers for rival companies."

Hansen also complained about Scottish restrictions such as the 67m limit for towers, which is nearly half what is permitted in Germany: "Scotland is blessed with a lot of wind power, but if the towers could be built higher, it could make as much as 10% difference to the energy potentia."

A spokeswoman for HIE said: "SDI and HIE are still in ongoing and complex negotiations with Vestas and the potential buyers of the Campbeltown site. An agreement on the future of the facility has yet to be reached."

Nicol Stephen declined to comment.

[mrn]

Is there any more news on this?

[Kintyre Forum News]

Atlantic windfarm could create hundreds of jobs
Deal could secure future of yard

Published: 16/02/2009

AN OFFSHORE windfarm that would generate power for up to one million homes could create hundreds of jobs on the west coast, it emerged last night.

Scottish Power Renewables has been given the go-ahead to investigate the potential for a windfarm in the sea off Argyll and Tiree.

As well as creating hundreds of jobs, the wind- farm could also help secure the long-term future of turbine manufacturing in Argyll.

The announcement comes amid continuing uncertainty over the future of the Vestas wind turbine tower factory at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown.

If a buyer for the fabrication works is not found, 90 jobs could be lost.

Last night, Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid said the proposed windfarm could safeguard the plant’s future.

He said: “There are currently 90 jobs, but I imagine that number could increase to 200 or 300.”

Mr Reid added that if the technology to build windfarms in stormy Atlantic waters off Scotland’s west coast could be perfected, it would be a major boost to Argyll’s economy.

Argyll and Bute councillor Rory Colville, whose South Kintyre ward includes the Machrihanish plant, said the industry was “crucial” to the area’s economy.

He said: “If the factory closes, the population of South Kintyre will drop by 20% as people will move away to find work. The population would then reach a level that would be unsustainable.

“The confidence in this area has gone and nobody is investing. I would welcome any developments in offshore windfarms because it would see a return of confidence.”

The company is set to begin feasibility assessments and a consultation process later this year.

It is estimated the site has the potential to generate between 500megawatts and 1800MW of green energy, which is enough to power 270,000-1million households.

Director Keith Anderson said: “Offshore wind power has massive potential and the UK Government has already outlined ambitions to generate up to 33,000MW of power off the UK coastline.

“Scotland has the best onshore wind resources in Europe and now it is taking its first steps towards harnessing its offshore potential, which will play a major role in helping to achieve renewable energy targets.

“Today’s announcement is the first step on a long but important journey and over the next 12 months we will carry out detailed studies of the site and will consult widely with stakeholders to help shape any future scheme.”

A spokesman for the company said it was too early to say how many jobs might be created and the construction will not start until at least mid-2010.

The site awarded to the company is among the first for offshore windfarm developments in Scotland.

The Crown Estate initially requested expressions of interest from companies wishing to be considered for developing commercial scale windfarms in Scottish waters in May 2008.

The Scottish Government has set targets to meet 50% of electricity demand from renewables by 2020 and an interim target of 31% by 2011.

[Kevin Mc]

He said: “If the factory closes, the population of South Kintyre will drop by 20% as people will move away to find work. The population would then reach a level that would be unsustainable.

What exactly do they mean by a unsustainable level?

Hopefully it won't come to that anyway....

[Buzz Lightyear]

I heard tonight the employess all got a letter informing them that the takeover has gone through and the the new company take over on 1st April 2009 , Alec Salmond is apparantly going to the factory on thursday to announce it, i was told by someone who told them who works in a local establishment who was doing the catering for it on Thursday. i also heard the factory is being all painted up!! Typical campbeltown, same old, dont tell anybody but......

Great news for the factory and all who work there.

Also heard the ferry is going to be announced along with this at the same time, makes sense, but only running from Troon to Campbeltown...its a start i suppose.

Also makes sense it must be good news when Alec is coming himself to announce it.

We'll wait with baited breath to hear the news then all act surprised when it comes!!

[History]

We'll wait with baited breath to hear the news then all act surprised when it comes!!