GE Renewable Energy has announced that it will be bringing 750 new jobs to Teesside with the development of a large offshore turbine factory. The development is taking place as part of a broader programme to revitalise two ailing ports across the east coast.

The company is working to a production start date of 2023, with the site due to manufacture and supply blades for the UK's biggest planned offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank, which is due to open in 2026.

Jerôme Pécresse, the CEO and president of GE Renewable Energy, said that the company was excited to be announcing its intention to develop a fresh talent pool in the renewable energy industry at Teesside by hiring and upskilling future employees at the plant.

RenewableUK welcomed the news, with CEO Hugh McNeal saying that it marked the beginning of a new generation of manufacturing for offshore wind.

The company will be the first manufacturer of offshore wind blades to invest in two cutting-edge offshore wind ports.

These ports need to be upgraded to safely handle the latest wave of larger turbines, which are as tall as the 72-storey London Shard skyscraper. These turbines are now being used across all latest-generation wind farms. The blades produced at Teesside's new factory will fit the world's largest wind turbine - the GE Haliade-X. Just one turbine rotation will produce enough energy to power a single home for two days!

The government will also be investing £95 million to upgrade existing manufacturing sites across Teesside and The Humber to prepare them to become specialist sites for manufacturing next-generation super-turbines, creating around 3,000 new jobs at each site in the process.

Furthermore, wind power is now so cost-effective that it is expected to soon be a subsidy-free commercial operation.