Corbyn pledges five-fold increase in offshore wind, creating nearly 70,000 good jobs

Tuesday, 8 October 2019 22:30

As Extinction Rebellion enters the third day (Wednesday) of its October rebellion, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn will visit a state-of-the-art wind turbine facility to discuss Labour’s 10 year plan for clean energy to reduce emissions to net zero and keep global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees. Corbyn will lay out Labour’s 10 year plan to radically expand offshore wind to help tackle the climate emergency, create new, good unionised jobs and invest in coastal...Request free trial

Corbyn will lay out Labour’s 10 year plan to radically expand offshore wind to help tackle the climate emergency, create new, good unionised jobs and invest in coastal communities.

Labour’s 10 year plan will cause a dramatic fivefold increase in the UK’s offshore wind capacity, with 37 new wind farms, as part of a Green Industrial Revolution.

This new investment – drawn from a combination of public and private sources and worth £83 billion over 10 years – is estimated to create more than 67,000 new good, unionised jobs across the country and provide enough electricity for 57 million households, replacing the need for 38 coal power stations.

As well creating new jobs and clean energy, the investment will further directly benefit the public, with a 51% public stake in all new offshore wind farms. 20% of the public’s profits from new offshore wind, estimated between £0.6 and £1 billion per year, will be invested directly into held-back coastal communities to create a new generation of harbour fronts, parks, leisure centres and libraries.

The remaining 80 per cent of public profits will be reinvested into decarbonising the economy, tackling the climate emergency head on.

Labour’s commitment to dramatic expansion of clean energy stands in stark contrast to the government’s record of falling investment in clean energy three years running.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The full scale of the environment and climate emergency cannot be ignored.

“As scientists and activists have made clear, we need immediate and radical action to have any hope of keeping temperature rises to a manageable level.

“We know the big polluters and banks won’t take the necessary action. So the next Labour government will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution, protecting our planet and creating hundreds of thousands of high-wage, high-skill unionised jobs across the country and delivering investment for communities that have been held back for decades.

“Labour’s 10 year plan will provide the massive public investment needed to radically reduce our emissions and secure a future for our planet.”

Shadow Energy Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey MP said:

"Tackling the climate emergency is not only the biggest challenge of our generation – it’s also a huge opportunity to invest in British manufacturing and our industrial communities that have been held back under the Tories.

"Labour will increase offshore wind generation sevenfold, delivering 52 gigawatts of wind power through £83 billion in combined public and private investment creating 67,000 good, unionised jobs. That’s four times the investment and three times the jobs brought in by the enormous Hinkley Point C nuclear power project. And our wind power revolution will be built in Britain: instead of jackets for wind farms located in Scotland being made in Indonesia, we’ll bring those jobs back to Fife.

"The Tories want to present this as a binary choice between economic growth and climate justice, but it’s not. Our Green Industrial Revolution will ensure that the costs of the tackling the climate emergency are borne by the richest in our society, not the majority, decarbonising the economy while delivering good jobs for the many."

Ends

Notes to editors

The massive expansion in offshore wind under Labour will be financed through joint venture partnerships between publicly-owned Regional Energy Agencies (REAs) and existing offshore wind developers. A total of £83 billion will be invested between 2020 and 2030, including:
£6.2 billion from equity capital provided by the National Transformation Fund:
- a further £6.2 billion in equity capital invested by the REAs;
- £12.5 billion invested by private sector partners in equity capital;
- £58 billion in limited-recourse project finance.
New offshore wind farms will owned and operated by a joint venture between publicly-owned REAs and the private sector. Labour has committed to setting up REAs in every region, accountable to local authorities and workers. The REAs will be responsible for running the distribution and transmission networks, and meeting regional decarbonisation targets to meet Labour's 60% clean electricity and heat targets.
The regional breakdown of the jobs estimated to be created under Labour’s plans can be found below.

Region	New Offshore Wind Jobs by 2029

Scotland	18,918

North East	10,369

Yorkshire and Humber	11,124

East Anglia	12,068

North West	2,013

South West	671

Wales	2,013

Remaining jobs distributed across UK	10,090

All UK	67,266

The 'Fife – Ready for Renewal' campaign run by the Scottish TUC, GMB and Unite has challenged EDF's decision to build the enormous foundations for its new Neart Na Gaoithe wind farm not in manufacturing yards in Fife in view of the wind farm, but in Indonesia 7,000 miles away.
http://www.stuc.org.uk/news/1380/fife-ready-for-renewal-campaign-swings-into-action-as-stuc-reveals-that-edf-energy-is-set-to-break-promises-on-jobs-for-fife-as-offshore-wind-contracts-go-abroad
Sweden, Norway and Denmark have each developed successful publicly-owned national industrial champions to take advantage of the offshore wind boom.
Denmark’s Ørsted (previously DONG) owns over 30% of the UK’s offshore wind, and is the largest offshore developer in the world.
Norway’s Oil Fund also demonstrated the importance of taking a public stake in offshore energy resources, rather than privatising the assets and losing control over future revenue stream.
Municipal energy companies in German cities like Munich and Darmstadt have become large-scale offshore wind developers, returning revenues to local services in their home cities. Stadtwerke München owns 30% of the Gwynt y Môr windfarm off the Welsh coast.
People's Power will be financed through joint venture partnerships between Regional Energy Agencies and existing offshore wind developers. A total of £83 billion will be invested between 2020 and 2030, with £6.2 billion from NTF-provided equity capital, a further £6.2 billion in equity capital invested by the REAs, £12.5 billion invested by private sector partners in equity capital, and £58 billion in limited-recourse project finance from the private sector.
37 new wind farms is based on an average 1.1GW per wind farm.
Generation equivalent to the consumption of 57 million homes is based on 41GW of new offshore wind generating 208.9 TWh per year, and 3,600 kWh annual consumption per household.
Added to existing 11GW from offshore wind this will total 52GW by 2030.
52GW is equivalent to 38 coal plants is based on 1.37 GW per coal plant.
Labour will make the Regional Energy Agencies powerful industrial actors - learning from the success of public companies across Europe. As well as offshore wind, the REAs will own and run our electricity and gas distribution networks, install solar on 1.75 million homes, and deliver a mammoth electric charging expansion for electric vehicles.