SureBlades rises from Vestas’ ashes

Nearly a year since Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas confirmed the controversial closure of its blade facility on the Isle of Wight, some of its former workers have launched their own firm manufacturing recyclable blades for micro-turbines.

SureBlades is headed by one of Vestas’ sacked employees, Sean McDonagh, and his business partner, Keith Hounsell, who installs turbines across the south of England.

The start-up has secured an order with Irish turbine manufacturer C&F Green Energy to make 1,000 recyclable blades for C&F’s direct drive 15kW machine. The first blade is expected to come off the line in late September this year.

Once the blades have reached the end of their 20-year life, they will be melted down and used to make new blades, or another product, McDonagh told BusinessGreen.com. He hopes the small size of the turbine and recyclable feature will appeal to people who are traditionally opposed to onshore wind energy.

“In the future, more and more people are going to be asking about what happens when a turbine comes to the end of its shelf-life,” he said.

“Our process isn’t totally green, because we’ll still need to use oil to make the plastic, but it’s better than burning them, or taking them to landfill.”

Although SureBlades is starting small, with just five workers making 4.7 million blades, it hopes to grow its workforce to 40 within two years and is already drawing up plans to make blades up to 12m in length for C&F.

The new venture's rented manufacturing facility is just a four-minute walk from the former Vestas blade facility in Newport, which closed in August last year, making hundreds redundant.

McDonagh and Hounsell have not yet received any government funding to start up the firm, however, they have had an overwhelming response from businesses and individuals offering their services, including one London-based accountant who offered to work for SureBlades free of charge; a paint-spraying company based in Southhampton which used to work for Vestas; and a large number of former Vestas workers on the island.

“Three or four people have been contacting me every day asking for jobs,” said McDonagh.

“All those guys have got the skills to do the work. The reason we were so passionate [about the closure last year] was that we didn’t want to lose these skills."

The move was welcomed by the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which backed Vestas' employees during the high-profile sit-in last year.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The former Vestas workers behind this imaginative new project have completely destroyed the argument put forward by the company at the time of closure that there was no market for UK-manufactured turbine blades.

"They have also shown that it is far too easy for companies in the UK to soak up government grants and then just cut and run when it suits them without any meaningful consultation, never mind a ballot of the workforce.”