On the banks of the River Humber in northern England, the winds of change are blowing through Hull, where factory workers busily craft turbine blades in a green revolution. Hull, known for a once-thriving fishing industry, the poet Philip Larkin, rugby league, and the city’s eponymous football club recently bought by Turkish TV personality Acun Ilicali, is home to Britain’s biggest wind turbine blade plant.
That has placed Hull at the centre of the UK government’s long-term plan to slash carbon emissions, tackle climate change and cut rocketing household energy bills.
German-Spanish giant Siemens Gamesa is rapidly expanding its facility to meet booming demand and keep the country’s much-trumpeted 2050 net-zero target on track. Britain unveiled financial support for households after the UK energy regulator lifted prices to reflect the spiking natural gas market.
“We are doing our bit to tidy the world up and get cheaper and cleaner energy for everybody,” blade painter Carl Jackson, 56, told AFP from the factory floor.
“I think wind power is a big part of the future. It’s been a massive boost to jobs and the economy in Hull,” added Jackson, who joined when Siemens Gamesa opened six years ago. Siemens Gamesa built the £310-million plant jointly with Associated British Ports in 2016, and it is now undergoing a major extension to build bigger blades.
The Hull factory manufactures about 300 turbine blades per year, with each measuring 81 metres in length — about the same as the wingspan of an Airbus A380 aircraft. A wind turbine, comprising three such blades, can power an average house for 24 hours with one single rotation.
New, even longer 100-metre blades will provide enough power for up to two days. In the cavernous Hull factory, staff assemble balsa wood, fibreglass and resin into vast blade moulds to start a journey that will eventually harness the ferocious winds of the North Sea.
Source: eNCA
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