Anglesey in running for wind turbine factory creating 1,900 jobs

ANGLESEY is in the running to win a lucrative ?100m wind turbine manufacturing plant that would create 1,900 new jobs.

Urgent calls from government are being made to General Electric directors to persuade them the island is the “ideal site” for the factory the company announced yesterday it wants to build in the UK.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain has been in confidential talks in recent months with an unnamed company that is interested in creating a wind energy factory on the former Anglesey Aluminium site, which has the deep water dock needed for transportation of completed off-shore wind turbines.

The government was remaining tight-lipped last night about which firm that is, although Mr Hain told the Daily Post “this is a really exciting time for Anglesey and North Wales.”

GE's announcement comes on the back of the creation of a ?60m fund to cover the infrastructure costs needed for building such a plant, which Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in his budget on Wednesday.

Mr Hain said: “This is really exciting news and I will be contacting GE immediately to stress to them what an ideal location Anglesey would be for a wind turbine factory.

"Following the talks I had with companies in Bremerhaven, Germany, and the ?60m fund to support off-shore wind farm projects announced in this week's Budget, we could be another step closer to making Anglesey the UK 'hub' for wind energy.“

GE said the project will form part of a planned 340m euro investment in Europe's wind energy industry over the next 10 years. It added that it will bring in partners and suppliers of towers, blades and other offshore wind components to the manufacturing facility.

Gordon Brown's Government is keen to rescue the job market in Anglesey that has been badly hit by the closure of Rio Tinto's smelting plant by turning the area into an ”energy island“. That includes plans to push ahead with Wylfa B.

The deep port at the Anglesey Aluminium site makes it an ideal location for such a project as it would allow easy transportation of the turbines, with some potentially heading for new off-shore wind farms that could be built nine miles from the island's coast.

General Electric refused to be drawn last night on which sites are likely to make it on to its short-list saying it was "too early to comment“.