MHI Vestas will use its transport vessel Blade Runner 2 to carry turbine blades from its manufacturing plant on the Isle of Wight to its new painting and logistics facility at Fawley in Hampshire.



The new plant, which is expected to open in April 2018, will mean the company no longer needs to send blades to Denmark for painting and storage.

Construction of the Fawley plant is underway at the site of a decommissioned, oil-fired power plant.MHI Vestas UK director of stakeholder relations and business development Peter Clusky said: “The biggest challenge was finding an industrial waterside location near to our Isle of Wight production facility that could accommodate the 80-metre blades.“There are many ports nearby but they are all too busy.”MHI Vestas plans to use both UK facilities to manufacture the blades for both EDP Renewables’s and Engie’s 950MW Moray 1 wind farm off Scotland and Innogy’s 860MW Triton Knoll project off the coast of Lincolnshire.Clusky said he was confident both plants would be able to accommodate larger turbine hardware as and when it becomes available.