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Last week’s announcement that Centrica was withdrawing from plans to develop the next round of wind farms in the Irish Sea came as a big blow to many Merseyside firms.

Around 140 local businesses had been expecting to earn big profits from the installation and maintenance of hundreds of new wind turbines. Centrica held a licence to build 400 turbines between the Isle of Man and the Isle of Anglesey, to be known as the Celtic Array, in a joint venture with Danish energy group Dong Energy.

The Celtic Array was meant to help Britain meet its target of generating 15% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. It would be enough to power 7.5m homes. Centrica cited difficult sea bed conditions in the Irish Sea for its withdrawal, but it is also the latest in a series of off-shore windfarm schemes to be scrapped.

Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird, which helped install earlier rounds of turbines in the Irish Sea, had hoped to be at the forefront of this work. It had previously said that its workforce could double in size to 2,000 and see its turnover top £500m on the back of the Celtic Array.

Last week, Laird’s chief executive John Syvret described the news as a “bitter blow”. Now Laird, which has already invested £10m to adapt its facilities for windpower work, has to re-write its business plan, as do the other 140 firms around Merseyside that had anticipated earning substantial revenues from servicing the Celtic Array.

These other firms include Bromborough-based sea bed survey firm Osiris Projects, cable maker Tratos and North West Control Cables, diving and support company Hughes Sub Surface Engineering, and mechanical maintenance firm Rewinds & J Windsor.

Osiris Projects technical director Jim Walters accepts sea bed conditions were likely to be tricky, though he also believes Centrica should have anticipated them.

Mr Walters said: “The UK coast is notoriously problematic. Anybody worth their salt should have known to anticipate that.

“They should have had studies done before they got this far.”

He said the most likely problems encountered off the coast of Anglesey would be 10metre high sand waves and bare rock. In contrast, existing turbines were built closer to shore where the sea bed is flat sand.

Off-shore windfarms account for 40% of the Bromborough firm’s order book. Osiris is currently carrying out surveys for Dong Energy’s Burbo Bank windfarm, just off the Wirral coast. The firm had anticipated bidding for similar survey work on the Celtic Array. The project could have kept the firm busy for years to come.

Dan Lewis, energy policy adviser to the Institute of Directors, believes economics has moved against windfarms as the amount of subsidy available for off-shore windpower has been curtailed by the National Grid.

The expense of off-shore windpower has made it more vulnerable to political risk, a fact that could be deterring investors. Future governments could prove unwilling to continue funding it if there are cheaper options available to them.

“The politicians may change their minds,” warned Mr Lewis.

“It’s a mistake to endorse too readily what is fairly immature technology.

“Off-shore wind has been more of a challenge than they thought it would be. It’s proving more expensive to maintain the wind farms than they thought it would be.”

Referring to wind farm investors, Mr Lewis said: “At the end of the day, they have an obligation to make a return to investors, not fulfil Government policy.

“We need to look at plan B. The longer we leave it, the harder it’s going to get.

“There are much cheaper ways to access alternative power. A sub-sea cable from Norway would give access to more hydro-electric power and another could access nuclear power from France.”

However, others disagree that the tide has turned against wind farms. Robert Norris, head of communications at trade body RenewableUK argues that while some schemes have been scrapped, many more are proceeding.

He said: “It’s the only way we can get to the target for renewables we have got to hit by 2020.

“Wind is the dominant and most developed source of renewable energy. That’s going to be the one that gets us to the target.”

The waters off Britain’s coast are already home to 22 completed wind farms. Another five are under construction, while 20 others are in the planning stages.

Mr Norris added: “When you have a basket of projects, there will be some that make it and others that fall away.”

He denied that the advent of shale gas had altered the prospects for off-shore windfarms.

He said: “The reason it happened in America is they have vast spaces of open land where people are not going to object. We don’t have the space and open land, so you will see massive opposition to fracking when it happens under their houses.

“In any case, fracking is not going to be ready in time to fill the gap left as coal fired and nuclear power stations close.”

However, Mr Norris accepts the government’s support for wind power has waned in recent years.