For the first time ever wind farms overtook every other source of electricity according to data from Drax Electric Insights. Although the quarter to March was less windy than the same quarter last year wind farm capacity increased by 14%.
This is important to the UK for obvious climate change reasons but is doubly important to the North East of England because it reinforces the importance of the Offshore Renewables Sector for which Blyth Valley and the rest of the area is becoming a world class economic cluster. There are many large and small businesses operating in this sector in and around the Blyth Estuary including JDR Cables who are investing over £100m in a new factory and RWE who have chosen the Port of Blyth for their operational base for the construction of the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. Hundreds of well paid jobs are being created.
Ian Levy MP for Blyth Valley commented “It’s a major achievement that together the UK Government and the Sector itself have reached this important milestone for Clean Energy. Blyth Valley is at the forefront of the UK and global Offshore Renewables Sector and new well-paid jobs are being created. The industry has fantastic support from the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and all the important research they do as well as the Port of Blyth who provide the world class facilities that these companies depend on. As a member of Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee I know how important these firms are and I will keep beating the drum for the North East to become an industrial giant in Green Energy.”
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