The closure of Danish wind giant Vestas was a major blow to the low carbon industries, and served to undermine the government's pledge to support such companies. However, almost one year on, three former employees have embarked upon their new venture – Sureblades – just metres from the Vestas factory. 600 people were employed by the world's largest wind energy firm when the closure of the Vestas factory took place, around 425 of whom were made redundant. However, three of those people have opened the doors to their new blade manufacturer business, Sureblades.
The company is depending upon the production of a 100% recyclable blade, which they are working on alongside a team at Southampton University. Already, an order has been placed by Irish energy firm C&F Green Energy for 1,000 blades.
The blades differ in their capacity to be melted down at the end of their shelf-life and used in the creation of new blades. This is far preferable to the burning of the old blades, or simply sending them to landfill sites.
The company, situated on the same estate as the former Vestas site in Newport, hopes to employ around 40 new staff over the next 24 months, and have had plenty of interest from former Vestas employees already. The potential success of this venture undermines the argument put forward by the Danish firm last year that there was no market for British blade manufacturers for wind turbines.
Although the company received no government funding to start the business, they have had a very positive response from various businesses and individuals who have worked with Vestas in the past. In addition to this, Sean McDonagh, who is heading up operations at Sureblades, has informed interviewers that three or four people have been enquiring about job opportunities on a daily basis.
Heading the Sureblades firm are former Vestas employees Sean McDonagh, Keith Hunsell and Glynn Milton, alongside Penny Stout. The latter was a special adviser to Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and so, has a valuable wealth of knowledge and experience in this area.
