of Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Each is 108 metres long, a giant sabre-shaped tooth crafted to slice through the air. A core of fibreglass is layered with epoxy resin, balsa wood and plastic to produce “just the right combination of flexibility and stiffness”, says Andy Sykes, the project director.
Politicians of all stripes point to the Siemens factory as a model. On a visit in 2021, Rishi Sunak, then chancellor, said it pointed to the critical role of domestic green industries. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party’s leader, has bold ambitions of Britain becoming a “green-growth superpower”, spurred by a boom in manufacturing jobs. Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary, whose constituency is nearby, wants to “rebuild Britain’s industrial strength”.
But green industries could still play a big role in helping Britain lower its carbon emissions and in improving the prospects of its former industrial heartlands. Britain has some advantages in high-value manufacturing and clean-technology innovation, according to a study by Anna Valero of the London School of Economics. The country has excellent universities. It has ready access to the North Sea. It could expand in areas such as offshore wind and carbon capture and storage .
But as much as the factory has been a boon for the city, it may not be a model for Britain. Only around a fifth of the value of manufacturing a turbine is in the blades. Twice as much is in the nacelle, the central hub which contains all the electronics, points out James Gilbert, professor of engineering at Hull University. Siemens does that in Cuxhaven in Germany. Britain ought to be aiming to attract investment in the higher-value end of the supply chain.
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