Offshore wind company to create 180 jobs in Lanarkshire

Oct 6 2011 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

UP to 180 new jobs are to be created at an offshore wind technology centre opened in Lanarkshire.

Spanish-based turbine manufacturer Gamesa will use the new £12½m complex to develop next-generation offshore wind technology.

The premises at Strathclyde Business Park, Bellshill, was officially opened last Wednesday by First Minister Alex Salmond and Gamesa chairman and chief executive officer Jorge Calvet.

Forty engineers are already employed at the complex.

Gamesa hope to be employing more than 100 staff by the end of this year and 180 within three years.

Staff will be working on the design and development of the company’s offshore wind platforms.

The jobs announcement comes at a time when the number of Jobseekers allowance claimants in Lanarkshire has rocketed by more than 11,000 since the start of the Credit Crunch in 2008. Almost 22,000 were claiming the allowance in August.

Mr Salmond said: “I welcome the arrival in Scotland of a company with such a strong reputation in this sector. Clearly this market is highly mobile and Gamesa’s decision to develop its next generation turbine technology in Scotland is a strong endorsement of our workforce and of the level of skills and expertise that we can offer inward investors who chose to establish here.”

Senor Calvet said: “Our Offshore Wind Technology Centre in (Lanarkshire) represents an important step in this strategy. Our offshore plans could generate significant local, skilled and sustainable jobs over the coming years.”

Gamesa is working to launch two offshore platforms and have announced that Britain will be the centre of their offshore wind business.

They plan to invest more than £130m in Britain by 2014 and estimate that the construction and development of their offshore wind business here will create nationwide over 1000 direct jobs and another 800 indirect jobs at local suppliers.

They plan a blade manufacturing plant in the UK, at a site yet to be announced, and will work from a number of ports.

Gamesa have received £1½m Regional Selective Assistance funding from the Scottish Government.

Gamesa also last week signed a strategic research partnership agreement with the University of Strathclyde.