The world's energy needs creates opportunities for British
manufacturing
22 June 2009
Unite union will hold a major conference on energy today (22nd
June), which will be addressed by Lord Mandelson. The union will
say that with support from the UK government, the UK's future
energy needs could create 10,000 skilled manufacturing jobs
over the next ten years.
Unite is bringing together some of the major players from the
power generation industry and manufacturers of energy components
for the conference in London, on Monday, 22nd June. Entitled 'New
Energy Brings New Opportunity', the conference will explore
the major opportunities for job creation and export potential for
the engineering supply chain for clean coal and new nuclear power.
The speakers include, Scottish Power, RWE nPower, Rolls Royce,
Doosan Babcock and Sheffield Forgemasters.
Unite's national officer Dougie Rooney said: "Nuclear power,
clean coal and carbon capture technology is key to meeting our
future energy needs while reducing C02 emissions. With the right
support from the UK government, Britain could become the centre for
a global engineering supply chain - 10,000 skilled manufacturing
jobs could be created as a result. The demand for components and
equipment from power generation companies gives UK manufacturing
companies huge opportunities to
expand."
"Britain has taken the lead in developing the technology. The
government must foster the right environment for British
manufacturing to flourish once again. The export potential is
global and reaches out to countries including India and China. The
opportunity to create thousands of highly skilled jobs in the UK
over the next 10 years cannot be missed, it has to be
realised."
Graham Honeyman, chief executive at Sheffield Forgemasters
International Ltd (SFIL) said:“SFIL is looking at opportunities for
the development of a 15,000 tonne press at its Brightside Lane
site, which would be amongst the largest in the world.
“This press would allow Forgemasters to make ultra-large
forgings to service civil nuclear contracts, but also to meet
increasingly high demand for ultra-large forgings in other
power-generation sectors across the globe.
“Such a project would immediately create several hundred jobs
both in construction and operation in our area, but would also
enable the formation of a manufacturing supply chain which
undoubtedly creates a labour demand.”
ScottishPower Chief Executive Nick Horler said: "We believe that
the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills,
jobs and tremendous opportunities for growth. To help make this a
reality, our parent company Iberdrola is committed to making the UK
its global centre of excellence for CCS and we have already
established significant CCS research projects with leading UK
universities and are undertaking groundbreaking test projects
including capturing carbon from our coal-fired power station at
Longannet - a UK first.
It is critical that we do not let timeframes slip. The UK has
the required engineering skills, the academic expertise, the
natural resources and a supportive Government - all the elements
needed to take the lead in developing CCS technology. ScottishPower
has a retrofittable CCS demonstration project that could be
operational by 2014, and this could kick-start a new industry that
has the potential to be as big as North Sea Oil."
UK engineering companies like Rolls Royce and Doosan Babcock
also have huge opportunities to expand and create high value
manufacturing jobs in the UK. Bill Bryce, Director of Doosan
Babcock and Lawrie Haynes, President of Nuclear at Rolls
Royce will make presentations at the conference. The conference is
also supported by BAE Systems.
ENDS
For further information contact Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315
Notes to editors
The conference will take place at Church House Conference Centre,
Dean's Yard, Westminster, London SW1P 3NZ . Registration begins at
9.30am. Lord Mandelson will address the conference at 10.30am and
take questions from the floor. For journalists wishing to attend
the conference please contact: wendyh@intl-solutions.com.
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