Ming Yang considers Spain for turbine investment – Daily Business
2 min readAfter UK rejection…
Ming Yang makes the world’s biggest turbines
Chinese wind turbine maker Ming Yang is in talks with the Spanish government after its Scottish plans were thwarted on security grounds.
Its chief executive Horatio Evers told Reuters that the company was still keen to build a manufacturing plant in Europe after its proposed £1.5 billion plant in the Highlands was knocked back by the UK Government.
“We want to build and manufacture our technology here in Europe with a European workforce,” he said.
“We would invest in a factory in a country, if we have the guarantee that our turbines are eligible for the market.”
Ming Yang’s rejected facility at Ardersier would have been the world’s largest wind turbine factory, creating up to 1,500 jobs.
Its talks with Spain will concern those who believe the UK government was misguided in rejecting the turbines.
The UK Government was concerned that its turbines would include electronics and sensors that gather data and could also be targets for cyberattacks.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said the government had a duty to put “national security and resilience first”.
Mr Evers rejected the claims, saying: “We have a well-established and robust regulatory and cybersecurity framework, and we have designed our setup to be fully aligned with EU requirements.
“There is no risk to energy systems. Ming Yang nor any other third party can remotely shut down wind farms that we deliver in the European market. Turbines cannot be used to disrupt the grid.”
After the proposal was turned down, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said it was an “anti-Scottish move”.
However, the use of Chinese renewable technology in Europe is a contentious issue. The European Commission launched a review in 2024 into Chinese manufacturers over concerns that cheaper imports threaten European competitiveness. It has yet to publish the findings.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said national security needed to take precedence over inward investment and described the First Minister’s comments as “a pretty strange conspiracy theory.”
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