UK Wind Turbine Deals Could Help Power Labour Party in Vote

OilPrice.com ^ | 04/21/2010 | Darrell Delamaide

[Faketan]

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces a tough re-election battle in next month’s parliamentary vote, hopes his devotion to clean energy will put the wind at his back.

Brown has reaped the benefits of his long courtship of wind turbine manufacturers in recent weeks as one after the other the large international companies have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments that will create thousands of jobs and make the UK a leader in wind energy.

The government’s budget last month included 60 million pounds for port improvements that spurred two of the biggest turbine makers, General Electric of the U.S. and Siemens of Germany, to announce plans for new plants to build offshore wind turbines. The companies pledged to spend $148 million and $123 million respectively on the new facilities.

In February, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries likewise pledged some $150 million to construct new turbine facilities. In addition, Clipper Windpower said it would build the biggest turbine blades in the world in Newcastle.

The UK recently granted leases for up to 32 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, and it expects 100 billion pounds ($150 billion) to be invested in the sector over the next 10 years. The projects would require as many as 6,400 turbines, according to one estimate. Full article at: Wind Turbines

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

In actual fact, it should propel him more rapidly into political oblivion, because the one-eyed scottish idiot’s failure to invest in more nuclear power plants and other politically incorrect forms of power plant has left Britain with an almost unavoidable energy crisis within the next few years as old plants are shut down without being replaced....

[Argus]

If they get all the windmills spinning at once, I worry that Airstrip One will actually take off, and maybe even capsize, making the recent disaster on Guam look like a picnic.