How geopolitics swung decision to refuse £1.5 billion Ming Yang plan
Labour was always going to risk political attack from the SNP for choking off green jobs if it refused Ming Yang
In the end, it was geopolitics and national security that trumped the commercial appeal of engaging with China’s green tech juggernaut.
The UK government’s decision to exclude Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Ming Yang from the UK supply chain will be a blow for those who believe that Scotland’s offshore wind ambitions cannot be met without using turbines delivered by China.
That’s partly because it’s recognised that the country is the world leader in renewable technology. But it is also because many of the developers that have already spent millions scoping out the potential of building vast wind farms in the North Sea under the ScotWind leasing round have long wanted an alternative to the industry duopoly of Denmark’s Vestas and Germany’s Siemens Gamesa.
The fact that Ming Yang’s turbines are about a third cheaper than its European rivals’ made the Chinese company all the more attractive.
For the Scottish government, Ming Yang mattered for another reason. When it kicked off in early 2022, ScotWind was set to make Scotland the global pioneer in rolling out a nascent type of offshore wind known as floating wind.
The Chinese company is the only one capable of producing at scale the type of turbines suitable for deep-water floating wind, which is supposed to make up 60 per cent of the vast ScotWind project, as opposed to the turbines used in fixed-bottom wind farms in shallower waters.
Ming Yang spotted its opportunity as far back as 2021, when it signed a preliminary agreement with the UK government to make the UK a “beachhead” for turbine component production in Europe. Scotland’s Ardersier Port was eventually announced as the preferred location for a £1.5 billion factory, which would make the UK nothing less than “the global hub for offshore wind technology”, Ming Yang said.
Yet concerns about the perceived threat posed by Chinese technology to the UK’s critical national energy infrastructure, as well as and supply chain dependency at a time of geoeconomic tension, have clearly swung the decision in London.
While it may seem far-fetched to some, there are genuine concerns among some developers and especially in the UK security services about the possibility that because the operational software embedded in a turbine remains in the control of the manufacturer after installation, there is a risk that a wind farm using Chinese turbines could be manipulated or switched off, causing damage to downstream transmission and grid.
Moreover, the UK’s recent closer alignment with Japan and the EU on cybersecurity and energy, including a landmark agreement with Germany on closer cooperation on security, appears to have made it impossible for the UK to let China into its critical national infrastructure. And there is the Trump factor. The US reportedly expressed its opposition to the use of Chinese wind companies in the UK last year.
Labour was always going to risk political attack from the SNP for choking off green jobs if it refused Ming Yang, especially as May’s poll looms. But by coupling the decision with an announcement by Vestas of plans to create 500 jobs at a new turbine component factory for Scotland, energy secretary Ed Miliband will be hoping he has taken the sting out of the decision to turn China down.
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