Miliband's net zero revolution is enriching China – and putting Britain at risk

Yahoo

13-02-2025

Fifty miles off the north east coast of Scotland, an armada of floating offshore wind turbines is about to make history.
The Green Volt wind farm will be the largest of its kind in Europe, spearheading Ed Miliband's pledge to turn the UK into 'a clean energy superpower.'
Once built, its 35 turbines north east of Aberdeen will generate enough electricity for some 300,000 homes and pave the way for a string of similar developments.
But this is not a story of British or European engineering ingenuity. The Green Volt turbines will instead be made by Mingyang Smart Energy, which is based in China.
Mingyang is just one of many Chinese companies whose arrival – some say takeover – of the UK energy transition has raised fears about national security, energy security and the likely damage to Britain's economy as manufacturing skills and jobs move to East Asia.
The company's involvement has also raised the hackles of the Ministry of Defence, with sources suggesting that Chinese turbines, each equipped with hundreds of sensors and floating off the British coast, may pose a security risk.
'If a Chinese company supplies the turbines they have a legitimate excuse to visit at any time for maintenance,' a source told the Sun newspaper. 'That means they can install almost anything they like.'
On Wednesday, Andrew Bowie, Conservative MP and the shadow Scotland secretary, said: 'The indication that Mingyang will get the green light to supply wind turbine technology to the Green Volt wind farm is concerning.
'This green revolution will come with a 'Made in China' label.'
Junior energy minister Kerry McCarthy acknowledged that national security concerns had been raised, but told the Commons that there were 'robust processes' in place to ensure any risk in the Green Volt North Sea farm was minimised.
She said: 'We have discussions with a wide range, variety, of international investors, but we do absolutely recognise this needs to be balanced against national security implications, and that is something that we work on constantly across Government.'
Ms McCarthy also defended engaging with China, adding: 'We absolutely need to attract the investment that we need to meet our clean power mission to secure our future energy security and in the long run bring down bills for the British people. We need to balance national security concerns in tandem with that.'
China's growing role in the UK energy and other systems has long raised concerns – although the focus previously has been on nuclear power and telecoms.
In 2020, the government ordered telecoms network operators to strip all technology made by China's Huawei from the UK's 5G public networks by the end of 2027.
Similarly, in 2022, the Conservative government spent £700m to buy China out of the Sizewell C nuclear power venture in Suffolk, citing security fears.
Yet China has still been encouraged to pour money into other forms of UK energy, both through direct investment and by domination of the supply chain.
For example, the last government encouraged China's State Development and Investment Corporation to invest in the Beatrice offshore wind project, off Scotland's east coast, along with the larger Inch Cape offshore wind project.
Meanwhile Shanghai-listed Ningbo Orient Wires & Cables – known as simply Cable Orient – was brought in to lay massive power cables between the Scottish islands of Skye and Harris, as well as mainland Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
Elsewhere, China's national oil company, CNOOC, operates the UK's largest offshore oil field, Buzzard, and takes much of what is produced directly to China.
The Buzzard platform will also be among the customers of the Green Volt floating wind farm, as part of plans to reduce its carbon emissions.
Green Volt is small – but it's a first. And it gives Chinese companies such as Mingyang a foothold on the UK's massive planned expansion of floating wind farms, which will aim to power 8m homes.
Further south in Scotland, the refinery at Grangemouth, near Edinburgh, is controlled by Petroineos, a joint venture between PetroChina and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos.
The plant, which has kept Scotland moving for decades by supplying most of the country's petrol, diesel and jet fuel, is now being shut down.
On Wednesday, Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, close to Grangemouth, questioned Mingyang's involvement in the Green Volt scheme in Parliament.
Running turbines and cable systems on Chinese software risks leaving the UK vulnerable to a remote switch-off, she warned.
'There are security issues involving [Chinese] companies involved in offshore renewable developments,' she said, pointing out that Mingyang has its sights set on further projects in the North Sea and is in line to receive £60m of support from the SNP-run government in Scotland.
Jardine is just the latest critic to express such concerns. Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, last month warned that the UK Government's target of producing 95pc of the UK's electricity using clean energy technologies 'hands power to Beijing'.
Dan Marks, an energy security expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), suggests China's growing involvement in UK energy poses three interconnected threats.
The most immediate is to national security. But the more insidious is the risk to UK supply chains, as China's workforce takes over the jobs and skills once held by British employees.
Despite this, Marks suggests we only have ourselves to blame.
China's success is partly down to the ruling communist government's 'Made in China' strategy, which makes no secret of its goal to dominate the industries of the future. It has involved massive state procurement as well as heavy subsidies.
'China is reaping the benefits of moving earlier and faster to create a market at scale and shielding it from international competition,' Marks adds.
'Europe, the UK and the US have failed to create a comparable demand for clean energy technologies or to secure access to the Chinese market, leaving their industries lacking investment, scale and, consequently, competitiveness.'
The scale of China's dominance in some parts of the renewable energy supply chain is nonetheless staggering.
In the case of solar panels, for example, the rest of the world now relies 'almost completely' on China, according to the International Energy Agency.
While only 36pc of panels made worldwide are used in China's grid, its shares of polysilicon, ingot and wafer manufacturing will soon reach about 95pc of global capacity.
To a lesser extent, China also leads the world in wind turbine production.
It controls about 64pc of the global value chain in wind, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. Beneath this headline figure its dominance of certain components is even higher, such as gearboxes (80pc), converters (82pc), generators (73pc) and castings (82pc).
Why are wind farm developers so tempted to buy Chinese? WindEurope, an industry trade body, says it is only partly because Chinese usually means cheaper.
A bigger reason is that they usually give deferred payment terms that Western rivals are not allowed to offer, meaning the cost is bourne after their turbines come online and start making a profit.
But whatever the savings, Giles Dickson, WindEurope's chief executive, has warned that long-term losses could be even greater – in both economic and geopolitical terms.
The group calculates that Europe's wind energy industry contributes €42bn (£35bn) a year to European GDP – with every turbine generating £11m of economic activity.
'By turning one's back on equipment designed and manufactured in Europe we increase our dependency on equipment from outside,' Dickson said at a conference in 2023.
'That undermines our energy security. And it rather contradicts the lessons we've just learnt from our previous dependency on Russian gas.'
He has warned of hidden security issues as well. 'There are 300 sensors on a modern wind turbine,' he said.
'The data from those sensors should be stored and analysed exclusively in Europe.'
RenewableUK, the UK's wind industry trade body, suggests the UK is too open to Chinese firms – with little reciprocal access for UK firms in China.
'We need to ensure that all companies are operating on a level playing field,' says Dan McGrail, its chief executive.
'By focussing on manufacturing high value offshore wind components, we can boost the UK's economy by £25bn over the next 10 years and create tens of thousands of jobs.'
China's domination of manufacturing also angers trade unions such as Unite in the UK, where just 2pc of the steel used in offshore wind turbines over the past five years was produced domestically.
'We are set for massive expansion in offshore wind, as well as new technologies such as green hydrogen,' a spokesman says.
'But the jobs are in manufacturing, and our wind industry is dominated by multinationals and foreign governments.'
Unite says the UK's high energy prices must also be tackled to address the problem.
Amid complaints that the green revolution has so far failed to benefit domestic manufacturers significantly, the Government has begun making moves to bring more production to the UK.
'The biggest risk to our energy security is staying dependent on fossil fuel markets,' a spokesman says.
'Investment in the energy sector is subject to the highest levels of national security scrutiny – we take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing relations with China.'
On Thursday, Miliband announced a 'clean industry bonus', providing taxpayer support to offshore wind companies that create green jobs in areas once dominated by oil and gas.
Kerry McCarthy, his junior minister, told the Commons: 'The biggest risk to our energy system and our energy security is remaining dependent on international fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators, and that's why we have a mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower – to end that dependence.'
Bold words – but China is a dictatorship too. It may not have any oil but is putting Chinese companies such as Mingyang at the forefront of the UK's energy transition any wiser than relying on a petrostate?
The risk remains that Miliband will indeed be helping create a clean energy superpower. But it won't be us.
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