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U.K. Will Maintain $95 Million Fund to Upgrade Ports (Update2)
2010-10-19 13:32:36.620 GMT
(Adds comment from eighth paragraph.)
By Alex Morales
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government will maintain
the 60 million-pound ($95 million) fund it created to upgrade
ports, bolstering the offshore wind-power industry, said David
Howell, a foreign office minister in the House of Lords.
The comment at a conference today comes a day before the
Treasury is due to announce a package of 83 billion pounds in
spending cuts to reduce the budget deficit. The Guardian last
night reported that port funding will be maintained.
The ports funding is aimed at enabling companies including
Siemens AG, Vestas Wind Systems A/S and General Electric Co. to
build factories in the U.K. that will make equipment for wind
farms in Britain's coastal waters and for export.
"Infrastructure is important, and it is being preserved,
although I'm not supposed to comment on these leaks," Howell
said today at the European Future Energy Forum in London. Asked
later to repeat his confirmation, he said, "I hope so."
The government also will secure 1 billion pounds of funding
for carbon capture and storage demonstration projects and cut by
10 percent the feed-in tariffs that give small-scale wind and
solar projects an incentive to generate power, the Guardian
reported, citing unidentified people in the government. The same
article said 400 million pounds is earmarked for small renewable
heat projects such as ground-source heat pumps.
Howell, 74, is responsible for the Foreign Office's
business in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament.
He served as a Cabinet minister for energy and transport from
1979 to 1983 under then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His
first job, in 1959 and 1960, was at the Treasury.
Windmill Makers
Executives at the three windmill makers were among 18
signatories of a letter sent to Treasury Chief Secretary Danny
Alexander urging him to safeguard the ports funding, the
industry group RenewableUK said on Oct. 12. GE and Siemens have
already said they're considering building factories to make
turbines in Britain.
"We're interested in very good ports because that allows
manufacturers to bring down costs," Thomas Dalsgaard, vice
president for strategic planning and new business at Dong Energy
A/S, said in an interview in London today.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has said
all spending in his department is under review. At stake are a
possible 50,000 jobs that could be created in Britain by the
turbine industry, RenewableUK says.
Boost to Industry
Port facilities that are able to handle large turbines are
vital to attract manufacturers to build domestic plants,
RenewableUK Chief Executive Officer Maria McCaffery said in a
Sept. 23 interview.
"Retaining the fund would give the industry a huge boost,
and clearly demonstrate that this government has both the vision
and drive to make a success of the U.K.'s renewable energy
sector," the lobby group said in an e-mailed statement today.
The U.K. is betting on offshore winds as it chases a
European Union target of deriving 15 percent of its energy for
heat, electricity and transportation from renewable by 2020.
Britain's capacity to generate electricity from the wind,
including onshore turbines, last month passed 5 gigawatts,
enough for 2.7 million homes.
For Related News and Information:
Top renewable energy stories: GREEN <GO>
U.K. power-market stories TNI UK PWRMARKET <GO>
Today's top energy news ETOP <GO>
U.K. electricity prices ELEU <GO>
Sustainability and environmental indexes SEI <GO>
--With additional assistance from Sally Bakewell in London.
Editors: Reed Landberg, Randall Hackley
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at +44-20-7330-7718 or
amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
