The Government is coming under renewed pressure over Chinese involvement in a major North Sea wind project.
The Green Volt North Sea farm, due to be Europe’s largest floating offshore wind farm, is a joint venture between a Japanese and an Italian-Norwegian company.
The Treasury has reportedly selected Chinese firm Mingyang Smart Energy to supply wind turbines.
The wind farm will be about 46 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire and will generate up to 560MW of electricity. The firm says it is aiming for the plant to be operational in 2029.
There are concerns that the Chinese state could switch off the power once the wind farm is operational, or that the platforms could be used as spy sensors.
Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West Christine Jardine said the Government needed to ensure the software could not be accessed remotely or be at risk of being switched off by others.
She said the Government must follow “rigorous processes”, adding: “That must include an assessment of any opportunities for remote access to the turbines, as the software will normally remain in control of the manufacturers, even once commissioned, which would leave them vulnerable to being switched off. We need local control."
Energy minister Kerry McCarthy said the department had processes in place to ensure any risk in the project was minimised.
Ms McCarthy said: “We have discussions with a wide range, variety, of international investors, but we do absolutely recognise this needs to be balanced against national security implications, and that is something that we work on constantly across Government.”
[…]
[UK] Chancellor Rachel Reeves flew to the country in January to meet the country’s leaders, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy will meet his Chinese counterpart this week.
This is despite concerns about China’s human rights record, and potential for them to use backdoors in Britain’s energy infrastructure to blackmail a future government.
[…]
In official statements China has been against the Russian invasion, and that is more than can be said for the US currently.
That’s some funky whataboutism. I don’t think I talked about the hostility of the new US admin. Or did I?
The current US admin would be a very low bar to clear, to boot. But afaik, even they are currently not buying a bunch Russian gas or filing up the spots left vacant through EU sanctions in the Russian market, neither are they delivering drones and electronics to Russia. Russia is basically a big dumb gas station at this point (granted, they have steel and Uranium too) – they wouldn’t stand a chance to fight this war on their own, without ambivalent/opportunist/supporting forces.
I am mentioning the US because EU cannot current or in the next 10 years be independent.
Yeah they are delivering theirs to Israel. You know the country commiting a genocide they couldn’t even hide from the ICJ.
I would love Europe independence, but if I had to choose US or China the answer is the not fascist one.
Can you stay on topic? Like at all? You brought up the US. For seemingly no reason whatsoever. (Fwiw, temporary ban for bad faith.)