Questions are being raised over the UK Government’s approach to Chinese involvement in Britain’s energy system after ministers acknowledged they had made no detailed assessment of Chinese ownership and financing behind battery storage capacity.
The SNP has seized on the admission following the UK Government’s decision earlier this year to block Chinese manufacturer Ming Yang’s proposed £1.5 billion wind turbine factory at Ardersier, which could have created up to 1,500 jobs in the Highlands.
The disclosure came in response to a written parliamentary question from SNP MP Graham Leadbitter to Energy Minister Michael Shanks.
It has reopened the argument over how consistently national security concerns surrounding Chinese investment are being applied across Britain’s rapidly changing energy infrastructure.
Research into Britain’s battery storage market has previously found that Chinese manufacturers supplied 72% of the battery cell capacity used in operational battery energy storage systems, although that figure relates to the manufacture of the cells rather than ownership of 72% of Britain’s storage assets.
The UK Government has itself acknowledged Britain’s wider dependence on China for batteries, with its battery strategy identifying the country as the UK’s largest source of imported lithium ion batteries.
That dependence has now become part of the political argument surrounding Ardersier.
Ming Yang had proposed investing up to £1.5 billion in a major turbine manufacturing facility at the Highland port, with the development potentially creating as many as 1,500 jobs.
The UK Government blocked the proposal earlier this year after considering national security concerns surrounding the Chinese company and the potential use of its turbines in UK offshore wind projects.
The SNP is now questioning why that approach appears different from the government’s treatment of Chinese involvement elsewhere in Britain’s energy infrastructure.
Graham Leadbitter said:
“This revelation confirms what we all suspected, the decision to block 1500 highland jobs appears to be entirely political.
“The Labour UK Government felt it necessary to block a turbine factory in the Highlands, but seemingly has no issue and not even the faintest idea about Chinese ownership of a key part of our energy system.
“If this UK Labour government is so concerned about national security, then why is it allowing Chinese firms to invest in battery storage, nuclear plants, airports, and super-embassies south of the border, is it because it’s in the Highlands and not Hertfordshire?”
The claim that the Ardersier decision was political is the SNP’s interpretation rather than an established reason for the decision, with the UK Government having cited security considerations surrounding Ming Yang and offshore wind infrastructure.
But the latest parliamentary response gives the party a fresh line of attack over how those security concerns are assessed across different technologies and investments.
For the Highlands, the argument carries particular weight because the decision did not concern an abstract future investment.
It concerned a proposed manufacturing operation at Ardersier carrying the prospect of up to 1,500 jobs and a major new industrial presence beside the Moray Firth.
