Author: Sally Perry
Vestas Receive £3.5m Funding Boost in UK
9:17 am Tuesday, 8th December, 2009, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/28a0
Read More- Cowes, Employment, Green Issues, News, Overseas
A £3.5m funding boost at Vestas Blades has been reported on IW Radio this morning, the money set to feed into research for offshore wind turbines.
Readers will remember that Vestas received £6million funding earlier in the year from SEEDA and the DECC.
Back in July, it was reported that the new facility in Stag Lane would create around 250 jobs, but we hear today that this figure has now increased to 400.
US lacking orders
Meanwhile over in the US, 500 staff have been given a temporary leave of absence due to lack of orders at the Windsor, Colorado plant.
Read more on that.
Image: M.Prinke under CC BY-SA 2.0
”A £3.5m funding boost at Vestas Blades has been reported on IW Radio this morning, the money set to feed into research for offshore wind turbines.”
Why do they need any funding at all. Dont Vestas make enough? They take everyone’s funding, make loads of money and move away leaving us without jobs.
I can see a pattern here! Won’t we ever learn?????
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Lets look at the bigger picture – they also employee lots of people, use local suppliers and companies therefore pumping back millions into the Island economy.
This is GOOD news!
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The funding must be a good thing for the Island. Even if it is short term, it’s still good.
Isn’t the key point – are their conditions on the grant? Things like they must remain for x decades, otherwise it needs to be repaid.
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I agree, the funding is fantastic for the Island as it will help create more jobs and research in offshore turbines can only be seen as a good thing too.
I wish all those who get through to the interview stage great success.
But I do also wish that Vestas would pay the redundancy money to the other workers who have been fighting for it over the last few months – whatever happened to the government minister who said she’d help?
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It’s great news for the Island that Vestas is to receive research funding. All the Island needs now are some actual wind turbines – the proof of the pudding, as it were.
Here in Aberdeenshire – arguably as beautiful a county as the IOW, just several degrees colder – we have a couple of large wind farms, and several smaller installations. The large wind farms, atop the hills, do not look out of place at all, nor do they detract from the area’s natural beauty. In fact, they look quite magnificent and in keeping with their surroundings. (as do windmills in Holland!) The turbines are virtually noiseless, and they do not kill birds. They also generate enough electricity to power two towns of sort-of Newport/Ryde size.
The next step in this neck of the woods hopefully may be a large offshore wind farm to help power Aberdeen city (and this is the oil capital, remember – but we are well in favour of renewables too)
A wind farm on the Island would be a super way to demonstrate both Vestas’ new technology and the Island’s commitment to renewable energy.
You may have guessed that I’m in favour of wind power – I do hope that one day, on one of my regular visits to my Island homeland, I will see the whirling of Vestas blades.
Stu Yates
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What a scandal. These people will take as much cash as daft politicians are willing to shovel their way. Now £15 million in total. ’400 jobs created or secured’ they claim? Don’t make me laugh. Wind turbines are inefficient, that’s why the US plant shut down and laid off workers. No-one wants the things! They exist only because of huge subsidy. This con trick is now coming to an end. The money of course is down the drain. When it runs out, this ‘new’ plant will also close.
As for those on VB who said Vestas would pull out off the IW if their turbines were rejected. You were wrong, as you are wrong about ugly giant wind turbines.
A minor victory for common sense.
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Do you know what? I don’t believe the ‘hype’ surrounding man-made climate change. I feel there is a significant element of ‘con’ in the whole thing. But, that’s for another post.
And yet, I adore wind turbines; IMHO they are graceful contributors to our energy requirements, and as for their quoted lack of efficiency, surely the significance of this depends on how much one is paying for one’s wind…
But the main reason I like wind turbines, is because they get right up the nose of the nimbys, and I wonder how many of the anti-brigade have moved to our lovely home and try to change it. Might I ask from where you originate, Shobba?
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do you mean Vestas in the US that have not shut down or laid off staff…they are however taking a break and giving the staff a holiday (whatever that means) because of the economic climate..they have not shut down.
Whetehr climate change is manmade , man contributed, or completely natural is utterly irrelevent…all three will lead to this Island being a lot smaller than it is now.. and we should do all we can to avoid that. Mind you if we become three Islands again, I can think of a few people to put on the smallest one
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Born and bred islander my friend, as were my parents and grandparents..
I look forward to being on my smaller island. Trouble is, it aint never gonna happen.
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again…a minority opinion
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This works out at £250,000 (a quarter of a million pounds!) for each job ‘created.’ I’d bet anyone given that amount of money could create a job for themselves, possibly several? What a terrible waste of taxes paid by hardworking families. Particularly when this place will almost certainly shut down again as soon as the cash dries up. In 50 years these turbines will be laughed at as a spectacular waste of money and effort.
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at least we’ll have the 50 years to wait.
Meanwhile…we can laugh at your blinkereed posts
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