world's biggest wind turbines go online near Liverpool

Pic:turbines at the Burbo Bank extension windfarm in Merseyside
Staff reporter(wp):

The planet’s biggest and most powerful wind turbines have begun generating electricity off the Liverpool coast, cementing Britain’s reputation as a world leader in the technology.

Danish company Dong Energy has just finished installing 32 turbines in Liverpool Bay that are taller than the Gherkin skyscraper, with blades longer than nine London buses. Dong Energy, the windfarm’s developer, believes these machines herald the future for offshore wind power: bigger, better and, most importantly, cheaper.

Each of the 195m-tall turbines in the Burbo Bank extension has more than twice the power capacity of those in the neighbouring Burbo Bank windfarm completed a decade ago. “That shows you something about the scale-up of the industry, the scale-up of the technology,” said Benjamin Sykes, the country manager for Dong Energy UK.

The project is the first time the 8MW turbines have been commercially used anywhere in the world, which Sykes hailed as a “very important milestone” for the sector.

Subsidies, friendly regulation and a maritime past have helped the UK install more offshore wind power than any other country in the world. Collectively they now have a capacity of 5.3GW, generating enough electricity to power 4.3m homes. Eight further projects already under construction will add more than half that capacity again.

But ministers have made it clear that the industry must keep cutting costs if the technology, the only large renewable energy source backed by the Conservatives, is to continue earning taxpayer support.

While a recent study showed the cost of offshore wind has fallen a third since 2012, a key litmus test will be the results of a government auction this summer for £290m of renewable energy subsidies.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it comes in below Hinkley,” said Sykes of the prices offshore windfarms might reach, compared to £92.50 per megawatt hour that France’s EDF has been guaranteed for electricity generated by the nuclear power station it is building in Somerset. Previous offshore windfarm subsidy deals have cost well above £100 per megawatt hour.

“This and other projects have been crucial for driving costs down for the whole industry,” said Skyes, pointing to the Burbo Bank extension.

Building fewer but more powerful turbines like these is cheaper because each tower and its blades need a foundation, the “transition piece” that goes atop that, plus the cables to connect it to a nearby substation, and ongoing maintenance.

In Germany, Dong recently made waves when the electricity grid regulator approved its bid to build the world’s first subsidy-free offshore windfarm. While Skyes will not be drawn on when UK windfarms might do the same, he describes this one off Liverpool as “part of the journey to a zero-subsidy windfarm”.

Dong thinks that by the time that German windfarm begins construction, there will be turbines as powerful as 13MW or 15MW. “There’s every reason to think they will arrive,” said Sykes, although he acknowledged eventually they will hit a theoretical limit.

The majority of turbines in UK waters today are between 3.0MW and 3.6MW, with a smattering at 5MW to 7MW, but the Burbo Bank extension is a herald of things to come. Most of the 16 projects which have a planning green light but have not started construction yet will use turbines of at least 8MW.

While the UK benefits from the power from those windfarms, the industry has been criticised in the past for not ensuring enough parts are made in Britain. Dong does not put a figure on what percentage of the Burbo Bank extension is UK built but half the blades are made at MHI Vesta’s Isle of Wight factory; the bits that sit on top of the foundation are built at Teesside.

For people such as Justin Donaghan, the industry also means skilled jobs and a long-term career. The 34-year-old former Royal Navy engineer never saw himself working in green energy before he started working on the original Burbo Bank windfarm seven years ago. He is now a turbine supervisor, looking after the small teams that service the turbines.

“I don’t even think there was a renewable energy sector when I was younger,” he said.

Government accused of ignoring workers' plight as UK faces pay squeeze

Staff reporter(wp):

Labour and the unions accused the government of ignoring the plight of ordinary workers after UK pay growth fell below inflation in early 2017 for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Official figures showed that workers’ average earnings rose by 2.1% year on year in the three months to March, the weakest increase since July of last year.

With inflation running at 2.3% in the same period, that meant real-terms pay lagged by 0.2% in the first three months of the year, the first fall since the third quarter of 2014.

The Labour party has made weak wage growth one of its main themes in the run-up to the general election on 8 June, which opinion polls suggest Theresa May is on course to win.

Analysis by the Resolution Foundation showed that wages were still £16 a week below their 2008 peak, leaving many families forced to borrow to make ends meet.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said the figures revealed “the Tories’ total failure to improve the living standards of working families”.

He said: “Real wages are lower than they were in 2010 and, after seven years of the Tories, they are now falling again.”

McDonnell has promised a Labour government would introduce a higher minimum wage and end to a cap on public sector pay rises.

Analysts said Britain was breaking all the rules of the postwar era as record levels of employment and unemployment at a 42-year low failed to spur consistently strong wage increases.

The unemployment rate in the period between January and March fell unexpectedly to 4.6%. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the rate to remain at 4.7%. The number of people in work rose by 122,000, taking the employment rate to a record 74.8%, the Office for National Statistics said.

John Philpott, the director of the JobsEconomist, said: “This is a jobs market that looks better on paper than it feels in the pocket, reflecting a structural shift in the types of work people do and the relative bargaining power between workers and bosses.

“No wonder workers’ rights, productivity and pay rather than the availability of jobs per se, is a key battleground in the UK general election campaign.”

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Today’s fall in real wages risks tipping working people into another living standards crisis. And that poses a major challenge for whoever forms the next government.

“The big question for every party is – what’s your plan to get Britain’s wages rising again?”

Liberal Democrat spokesman Vince Cable said:“This squeeze on living standards is almost certainly caused by the falling pound since the Brexit vote.

“If Theresa May is allowed to pursue her extreme Brexit agenda, we can expect further weakening of the economy and erosion of people’s living standards.”

May, who has denied that the Brexit vote lies behind the broader economic slowdown, has said she is aware of the squeeze on household spending and that she will cap energy prices, a move that appears to break with the Conservative party’s usual pro-market stance.

But inflation has already moved up to 2.7% and is heading above 3%, according to many forecasters, adding to the pressure on politicians to act.

The Bank of England is watching for signs of a pickup in wages that could add to inflation. So far it has judged that most of the pressure on shop prices has come from higher import costs that follow a sharp fall in the value of the pound.

Sterling fell by almost a quarter against the dollar after the UK voted to leave the EU before a recovery in recent weeks that has limited to the drop to nearer 13%. 

So far the Bank of England believes there is little pressure on most employers to raise pay sharply, which could feed a more permanent inflation problem.

This week, a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that most large employers were preparing to raise wages by 1% this year.

Other surveys have shown wage rises softening amid growing numbers of job cuts as Brexit uncertainty affects the labour market.

The Bank of England has softened its previous forecasts for a rise in unemployment, which it expects to stand at 4.7% this year, still above the level it considers inflationary.

The ONS said workers’ total earnings including bonuses rose by an annual 2.4% in the first quarter of 2017, edging up from growth of 2.3% in the three months to February.

The Bank expects wages to rise by 2% this year before picking up in 2018 and 2019, though it has forecast a stronger outlook in all of the last seven years only to be proved overly optimistic.

The ONS said the number of unemployment benefit claimants rose by 19,400 to just under 793,000 in April, slower than an increase of 33,500 in March.