Fears China could 'switch off' wind farm off coast of Aberdeen
www.heraldscotland.com
The Government is coming under renewed pressure over Chinese involvement in a major North Sea wind project.

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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.

[…]

    • randomname@scribe.disroot.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      6 hours ago

      China (and Russia) have actively been sabotaging European infrastructure as we have seen in the recent couple of years. It would be a bad idea, therefore, to become dependent on foreign tech that can be controlled by one these countries.

      • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        China (and Russia) have actively been sabotaging European infrastructure as we have seen in the recent couple of years

        Out of the loop here. What happened?

        • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          There are several reports on that, e.g., this one:

          Strangers on a Seabed: Sino-Russian Collaboration on Undersea Cable Sabotage Operations

          • Recent suspicious activities conducted by the merchant vessels Shunxing-39 and Vasili Shukshin in the vicinity of Taiwan in early 2025 suggest possible collaboration between Chinese and Russian merchant ships related to the reconnaissance and sabotage of undersea communications cables that connect Taiwan to the outside world.
          • Such activities follow from suspected undersea infrastructure sabotage operations conducted by Chinese merchant vessels in the Baltic Sea in 2023–2024, with strong indications of Russian assistance and coordination.
          • Taken as a whole, this string of incidents suggests an increasing willingness by Moscow and Beijing to collaborate on maritime sabotage operations—include on attacks on third-party targets.

          [Edit typo.]

            • federal reverse@feddit.orgMEnglish
              1·
              4 hours ago

              There’s a parallel thread already. But you’re partially right – China appears to be less outwardly involved in sabotage against the EU.

            • federal reverse@feddit.orgMEnglish
              1·
              5 hours ago

              Fair enough. Though at least two of the ships were under Chinese flags (ZH and HK) – although that may not mean much. Next: It’s not exactly “infrastructure”, but it appears likely that Northvolt was sabotaged by a Chinese manufacturer of production machinery. And from what I can tell, China supports Russian war efforts, in a bid to make the case for their One China-Taiwan takeover.

              • Jack@slrpnk.netEnglish
                11·
                5 hours ago

                China supports Russian war efforts, in a bid to make the case for their One China-Taiwan takeover.

                In official statements China has been against the Russian invasion, and that is more than can be said for the US currently.

                • federal reverse@feddit.orgMEnglish
                  11·
                  5 hours ago

                  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.