New facility for wind tower components announced

Corus has unveiled plans to construct a new £31.5M manufacturing plant in Teesside to produce steel foundation stuctures – called monopiles – used to secure offshore wind turbines to the seabed.

Preliminary engineering work is underway at the Corus Redcar site to develop the new facility which would potentially create 220 jobs.

Jon Bolton, Corus Long Products Director, explained that the company is moving now in order to establish its position in this emerging market.

He said: “The development of a new plant is dependent on us securing enough orders for monopiles. Our engineers will be carrying out work in Teesside over the coming weeks to give us a head start on creating a new facility.”

The intention is to redeploy and re-equip redundant buildings on the company’s 3,000-acre Teesside site for monopile production and shipment of the structures which can weigh as much as 650t.

Corus MD and CEO Kirby Adams said: “This is one of a wide range of new employment and business opportunities which Corus is working on in Teesside. It also follows recent recruitment at our Hartlepool and Skinningrove plants, as well as at our South Yorkshire and Scottish plants.”

Chris Elliot, Corus Director of Product Marketing, said: “The UK Government has approved ambitious plans to build thousands of wind turbines at sea over the next 10 years. They are intended to generate 35 gigawatts of electricity – around 15% of the UK’s energy requirements. Similar developments are taking place in other European countries.

“In the UK alone, we estimate that about 6 million tonnes of steel will be needed over the next 10 years to make the foundations and tower structures for offshore wind turbines. We are positioning ourselves to take full benefit of these opportunities.”