US Warns UK Over Mingyang’s Proposed Wind Turbine Factory, Chinese Analyst Says National Security Concerns ‘Guise for Protectionism’ – Reports

Share this article

The Trump administration has warned the UK government about security risks as Mingyang Smart Energy plans to build a factory in Scotland to manufacture wind turbines for North Sea offshore wind farms, according to a report by the Financial Times, citing a US official. A Chinese analyst has commented on the news, saying the talks about security risks are “protectionism under national security guise”.

In this article:

Mingyang Smart Energy entered the European offshore wind market at the beginning of 2021, as the Italian Taranto project, the country’s first offshore wind farm (now operational), chose to go with the company’s MySE 3.0-135 model instead of the initially planned Senvion technology.

Shortly after delivering the Taranto wind turbines in October 2021, Mingyang announced that it secured a second offshore wind contract in Europe for a floating wind project that would use the company’s 11 MW hybrid drive model.

In December 2021, the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) and Mingyang Smart Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on its proposed investment in a blade manufacturing factory, a service centre and potentially a turbine assembly factory in the UK.

In July 2022, the Chinese OEM started trading on the Shanghai segment of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and in September 2022, Hexicon selected Mingyang as the preferred turbine supplier for its 32 MW TwinHub floating offshore wind project in the UK.