First wind farm monopiles set to roll off SeAH production line

CONSTRUCTION OF VAST TEESWORKS FACTORY IS ALMOST COMPLETE

- By DAVE ROBSON Reporter

A TEESSIDE factory big enough to fit 14 football pitches in it is about to produce its first wind farm monopiles.

Photographs from inside the huge 1.1 million sq ft SeAH Wind factory, built by the Korean-owned firm on a 120-acre site at the Teesworks site, shows its extraordinary scale.

But with construction work on the 810m-long factory now 98.5% complete, it won't be long before the first monopiles bound for North Sea wind farm projects are being delivered from the South Bank complex.

SeAH Wind chief operating officer Peter Ivey confirmed the start of production will be in three phases, because of the factory's vast size, but phase one should start this month, with the others to follow by the end of the year.

A huge construction feat, the factory is 810m long - just over half a mile - 40m high and 200m wide.

During the construction phase, between 800 to 1,000 people have been on site daily, with 4.9 million hours spent building it to date.

More than 90% of the current workforce are from Teesside, with a staggering 9,000 applications submitted when the initial vacancies were advertised earlier this year.