On the occasion of Mr. Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister’s, visit to Paris, the AREVA group and Scottish Enterprise, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on industrial site development for the manufacture of wind turbines in East Scotland.
The MoU is a step towards establishing an AREVA factory in Scotland that will manufacture its 5MW turbines for offshore projects in the United Kingdom, complementing AREVA’s Le Havre facilities that will supply France, Belgium and more southerly UK projects. It is part of the group’s strategy to establish a manufacturing base that will cover the European market from three main industrial hubs in Germany (Bremerhaven), France (Le Havre) and the UK (Eastern Scotland).
AREVA, actively tendering with major utilities in the UK offshore wind market, has chosen to locate its future facility in East Scotland to optimise logistics costs for UK projects and to benefit from a growing cluster of offshore supply chain businesses in the area. Its development has the potential to create 750 direct jobs in the manufacture of wind turbines and blades.
The group is one of the leading offshore wind suppliers in Europe where the installed base for offshore is expected to exceed 40,000 MW by 2030. Thanks to its field-proven M5000 technology and unique experience in the field, AREVA is well positioned to grasp significant growth opportunities in the UK, which is now home to the world’s largest offshore wind market.
In the UK, AREVA is also involved in both nuclear decommissioning and plans for new build where it is actively working to develop a local industrial supply chain.
Luc Oursel, CEO of AREVA , said: “This demonstrates the group’s commitment to contribute to the development of an ambitious offshore wind industry in the UK. The Scottish site will complete our industrial plan to supply European offshore wind projects and will strongly position us to grasp opportunities in the extensive UK market.”
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Press release, November 19, 2012; Image: scotland