Darren Davidson is the vice president at Siemens Energy UK&I. He said that if Britain wants to reach its clean energy targets for 2030, it must have a record amount new offshore wind power.

Offshore wind is at the core of the country's plans to decarbonise electricity by 2030. The country aims to increase capacity from 15 GW to 43-50 GW by the end decade.

Britain conducts annual auctions to provide renewable subsidies. The guaranteed minimum price of electricity produced is offered as a way to encourage investment in new projects. The AR6 auction last year offered funding of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.03billion), with contracts awarded to just over 5 gigawatts of offshore wind power.

"To stay on track with the (clean power 2030 targets), we estimate that AR7 will have to clear a 6 GW record of offshore wind capability," Davidson said.

In 2019, AR3 awarded 5.46 GW of offshore wind power capacity.

Davidson spoke at Siemens Gamesa, the wind turbine manufacturer in Hull (northeast England) last week. Siemens Gamesa (Siemens Energy's wind energy business) has installed 10 GW offshore wind turbines around the coast of Britain.

Hull opened its factory in 2016, and now employs more than 1,400 employees. In the last 12 months, 600 new workers have been recruited as the site has doubled its production capacity.

"The last five year have proven that having a visible pipeline of project allows us to be more able to invest," Davidson stated.

Currently, it is manufacturing 300 blades - each longer than a soccer pitch, at 108 m (354 ft), for 100 turbines in RWE's Sofia offshore wind farm. This summer, it will begin producing blades for Scottish Power’s East Anglia Three Project. ($1 = 0.7441 pounds) (Reporting and editing by Susanna Fenton; Susanna Tridale)

(source: Reuters)