INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Clipper to build offshore wind turbines in UK

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By Nao Nakanishi

LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Clipper Windpower Plc plans to build in Britain offshore wind turbines with the biggest capacity available to meet demand from a boom in North Sea wind farms.

Jim Dehlsen, chairman of the London-listed, U.S.-based company, told Reuters it will set up a factory in northern England, which would have an annual capacity to manufacture about 200 turbines by 2014-2015.

Clipper has already begun engineering work on parts for a 10-megawatt offshore turbine in the north England town of Blyth, and plans its production in 2012. Some key components were already being tested.

The company, with headquarters in California, sees a bigger market for its new turbine in the North Sea, but hopes demand for its offshore turbines will grow in the United States later.

"We will start in the UK first ... offshore wind resources are one of the largest in Europe," Dehlsen said. " We expect the U.S. market will also be viable in that time frame.

The company would not disclose how much investment it planned in Britain for the production facilities.

While the world's total wind capacity is expected to reach 100-110 GW this year, up from 94 GW at end-2007 and more than twice of 48 GW at end-2004, offshore wind capacity accounts only for about 1 percent of the total.

However, experts expect the offshore wind to grow to about 40 GW in the next decade, with Britain accounting for about 20 GW, compared with its offshore capacity of just over 0.5 GW at present.

Britain overtook Denmark as the world's largest producer of energy from offshore wind in October, according to the government.

NORTH SEA

Clipper says Britain could also become a service supplier for wind farm across the North Sea, using experience and equipment from its offshore oil and gas industry.

"I think a good part of supply chain could be in the UK. It's not only the supply chain but the service vessels and installation cranes etc ... are already there," he said.

"As the North Sea becomes more depleted, it's a way of taking their industrial base and deploying into the new technology."

Britain has lagged behind Germany and Spain in developing onshore wind farms, despite being one of the windiest countries in Europe. U.K wind capacity totalled 2.5 GW at end-2007, compared with 22.3 GW in Germany and 15.2 GW in Spain.

Britain has no major turbine producers of its own but hopes to leap ahead in development of offshore wind farms with the Crown Estate's third round of tender for offshore wind farms scheduled for next year.

In April, the Crown Estate, which owns most of the seabed around Britain's shores, agreed to buy Clipper's prototype of the turbine to be erected in deep water.

Clipper is also focused on production of its 2.5 megawatt onshore wind turbines in the United States, one of the fastest growing wind markets in the world. (Reporting by Nao Nakanishi, editing by Daniel Fineren)