I searched to find an active thread to post in but decided there were so many threads that could provide a home that maybe it should stand by itself.
This is a story that appeared in the Sun Newspaper... not exactly renowned for its journalistic prowess, more for topless models on page three. It doesn't seem to have recieved much coverage anywhere else.
The UK's only wind turbine factory has been closed. This always sounded a bit suspect given the government commitment to wind energy, but this story explains it all. Tax payers money will actually be spent in other countries, no wonder China is doing its best to look "Green".
But it isn't just the wind turbine factory that has gone, the UK's steel industry is already suffering from the loss of many of its markets and if ever, with NuLabour (the party of nationalised industry), there was a case for spending the money in the UK, this was surely it, especially with the added justification cutting the emmissions from the ships transporting these things.
By the way, why a Dutch port? Surely, as this is a British offshore wind farm they should have come to a British port to be installed by British workers?
And what next? a colony of low paid Chinese maintenance crew living somewhere near the farm?
The story is bad enough but the Sun missed the point about British welders but this was picked up in the comments by Jonnybegood in the Netherlands:
There are numerous examples of British workers losing out to foreign workers, not just because jobs have gone to China, but where foreign workers are coming to the UK and working cheaper that the British workers can afford to.
Europe has its own sources of cheap labour and very little government help for the working man, let alone the more skilled engineers.
I think this story sums up pretty well most of the various fears expressed in other threads and the answers to some questions that it gives are pretty worrying.
Wind Turbines already have some big questions about life time and long term costs, concerns that become even more important when taking extra large turbines offshore, but if you factor in obvious bad workmanship... if something as basic as the welding is badly done, how about the critical components? gear boxes, generators, blades?
This cannot end happily.
JMW
This is a story that appeared in the Sun Newspaper... not exactly renowned for its journalistic prowess, more for topless models on page three. It doesn't seem to have recieved much coverage anywhere else.
The UK's only wind turbine factory has been closed. This always sounded a bit suspect given the government commitment to wind energy, but this story explains it all. Tax payers money will actually be spent in other countries, no wonder China is doing its best to look "Green".
But it isn't just the wind turbine factory that has gone, the UK's steel industry is already suffering from the loss of many of its markets and if ever, with NuLabour (the party of nationalised industry), there was a case for spending the money in the UK, this was surely it, especially with the added justification cutting the emmissions from the ships transporting these things.
By the way, why a Dutch port? Surely, as this is a British offshore wind farm they should have come to a British port to be installed by British workers?
And what next? a colony of low paid Chinese maintenance crew living somewhere near the farm?
The story is bad enough but the Sun missed the point about British welders but this was picked up in the comments by Jonnybegood in the Netherlands:
There are numerous examples of British workers losing out to foreign workers, not just because jobs have gone to China, but where foreign workers are coming to the UK and working cheaper that the British workers can afford to.
Europe has its own sources of cheap labour and very little government help for the working man, let alone the more skilled engineers.
I think this story sums up pretty well most of the various fears expressed in other threads and the answers to some questions that it gives are pretty worrying.
Wind Turbines already have some big questions about life time and long term costs, concerns that become even more important when taking extra large turbines offshore, but if you factor in obvious bad workmanship... if something as basic as the welding is badly done, how about the critical components? gear boxes, generators, blades?
This cannot end happily.
JMW
