US Warns UK Over Mingyang’s Proposed Wind Turbine Factory, Chinese Analyst Says National Security Concerns ‘Guise for Protectionism’ – Reports

The Trump administration has warned the UK government about security risks as Mingyang Smart Energy plans to build a factory in Scotland to manufacture wind turbines for North Sea offshore wind farms, according to a report by the Financial Times, citing a US official. A Chinese analyst has commented on the news, saying the talks about security risks are “protectionism under national security guise”.

In this article:

• Mingyang’s Entry Into European Market
• Security Concerns
• Targets and Capacities

Mingyang Smart Energy entered the European offshore wind market at the beginning of 2021 as the Italian Taranto project, the country’s first offshore wind farm (now operational), chose to go with the company’s MySE 3.0-135 model instead of the initially planned Senvion technology.

Shortly after delivering the Taranto wind turbines in October 2021, Mingyang announced that it secured a second offshore wind contract in Europe for a floating wind project that would use the company’s 11 MW hybrid drive model.

In December 2021, the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) and Mingyang Smart Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the wind turbine OEM on its proposed investment in a blade manufacturing factory, a service centre and potentially a turbine assembly factory in the UK.

In July 2022, the Chinese OEM started trading on the Shanghai segment of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and in September 2022, Hexicon selected Mingyang as the preferred turbine supplier for its 32 MW TwinHub floating offshore wind project in the UK.

The following year, Mingyang and Opergy Group entered a strategic partnership with an aim of accelerating the development of UK offshore wind projects and supporting the entry of Mingyang into the UK offshore wind market, according to the two companies.

In July 2024, Luxcara signed a preferred supplier agreement with Mingyang Smart Energy for the Waterkant offshore wind project in the German North Sea, where the German clean energy asset manager plans to install Mingyang’s 18.5 MW wind turbines.

Shortly after, Mingyang Smart Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its first European offshore wind client, Renexia, and Minister Adolfo Urso from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) for the production of Mingyang wind turbines in Italy and the supply of its 18.8 MW model for Renexia’s new project, the Med Wind floating wind farm.

In October 2024, Renexia also signed a contract with Mingyang for the front-end engineering design (FEED) of the 2.8 GW Med Wind project in Italy.

Mingyang is reportedly also being considered as a preferred supplier for the Green Volt project in Scotland, said to be the first large-scale commercial floating wind in Europe, developed by Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn.

A few months after Luxcara signed the preferred supplier agreement with Mingyang for its German offshore wind project last year, the German Ministry for Economy and Energy (BMWK) issued an action plan that also addresses the cybersecurity of wind turbines.

The five-point action plan, which specifically mentions Chinese suppliers in a few instances, is said to ensure a level playing field between European and international wind turbine manufacturers and, besides cybersecurity, encompasses measures on fair competition conditions, reducing dependencies on critical components, financing production ramp-up, and a revision of project financing provided by German and EU banks and institutions.

In the UK, concerns over national security were raised as Mingyang proposed to build a wind turbine factory in Scotland and following reports about the Green Volt partners considering Mingyang technology for its Scottish floating wind farm.

The joint venture, which is yet to select a preferred wind turbine supplier, is reportedly waiting on the UK government to come to a conclusion on whether using Chinese wind energy technology would pose national security risks.

The Guardian writes that Mingyang’s plans in Scotland and Green Volt potentially using the Chinese company’s technology came under scrutiny as the UK government recently took control of British Steel after claims that Jingye Group, the owner of the British steel manufacturer, wanted to make the steel plant in Scunthorpe “a dumping ground for Chinese steel”, which brought the Chinese companies’ involvement with critical national infrastructure into the spotlight.

On 18 June, the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration warned the UK government about national security risks that could arise if Mingyang is allowed to build its plant in Scotland and supply its technology to North Sea wind farms.

Following the news on the US warning, Chinese media outlet Global Times cited a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, He Weiwen, as saying this was “protectionism under national security guise” and “a clear example of Washington’s overreaching jurisdiction and protectionist policies”.

Last year, as news emerged on Vestas’s plan to build a new offshore wind turbine blade factory in Leith, Scottish Deputy Prime Minister, Kate Forbes, said there was “room” for both Mingyang and Vestas as energy transition ambitions in Scotland require an “enormous” transformation in the supply chain, according to a Financial Times report from November 2024.

The Guardian cites an industry source as saying the Green Volt joint venture “tried to get European manufacturers to no avail”. Referring to the UK energy secretary’s visit to China this year to discuss closer cooperation, the Guardian’s source said Ed Miliband was “on to something here” as the question is who is going to supply wind turbines if the country wants to reach its offshore wind targets if they are not coming from Chinese companies.

Under its Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, the UK government wants to make renewable energy and nuclear the cornerstones of the 2030 energy mix, with 43-50 GW of offshore wind in operation by that time. Currently, the UK has around 14.8 GW of installed offshore wind capacity.

For Europe, the plan is to have 111 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 300-400 GW by 2050. According to the industry, the 2050 target means more than 10,000 wind turbines need to be installed to reach the planned capacity.

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