The UK Government has pledged £230m (€272m) in fresh funding for offshore wind in its Autumn Budget.
Industry sources said the funding would go towards offshore wind manufacturing, comprising £220m of new funding and the remaining unspent £10m from the UK Government’s Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support Scheme.
The finance forms part of its £1.4bn Global Britain Investment Fund, which aims to attract foreign investment into the country.
In the budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) also confirmed the £160m investment in offshore wind power hubs.
The UK Government hopes these will create and safeguard at least 2,500 jobs in Teesside, Humberside and the North-East, ultimately enabling the sector to support up to 60,000 jobs by 2030.
In total, the Autumn Budget allocated £380m to the UK’s offshore wind sector to support the Government’s target of 40GW by 2030.
It will be part of a £15bn budget designated to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS).
RenewableUK chief executive Dan McGrail said: “It’s great to see the Chancellor backing the growth of our world-leading offshore wind industry in the run-up to COP26 with this funding which will help to increase UK manufacturing in this sector even further.
“It builds on the support Ministers have provided to upgrade UK ports to turn them into offshore wind manufacturing hubs and new centres of excellence as part of the Prime Minister’s Green Industrial Revolution.
“Already this year we’ve seen over £900m of private investment in new factories to manufacture offshore wind turbine blades, foundations, towers and cables in Teesside, the Humber, Newcastle and Blyth, delivering more than 2,500 new direct jobs in parts of the country which urgently need levelling up.”