{"text":[[{"start":8.36,"text":"The European chief executive of one of China’s largest wind turbine manufacturers says the company is in the continent for the long haul — despite its turbines being shut out of the UK’s offshore market on national security grounds."}],[{"start":21.52,"text":"Horatio Evers, the former head of German chemicals giant BASF’s energy division, was hired by Shanghai-listed Ming Yang in September to lead its expansion into the continent. He has set about poaching executives from rival companies, moving R&D functions to Europe, trying to establish local manufacturing, and regularly appearing at industry events as he tries to win hearts and minds."}],[{"start":44.52,"text":"“This is not a one-time try, what we are doing here,” he told the FT in an interview. “Ming Yang is the third-biggest [wind turbine] manufacturer in the world and they need to diversify their portfolio — we are going into the most attractive and biggest markets in the world; this is clearly Europe, south-east Asia, and so on.”"}],[{"start":63.28,"text":"He has hired Vestas’s head of legal of global offshore wind, Corinna Brandt, as general counsel for Europe, among the highest-profile of his recruits this year, alongside Siemens Gamesa’s former head of technical offshore development, Peter Wolf, and Vattenfall’s former head of offshore wind resource, Sascha Erbslöh."}],[{"start":80.72,"text":"The company, which has a market cap of Rmb23.9bn ($3.6bn) in Shanghai and also trades global depositary receipts in London, is among the highest-profile of several turbine makers that have helped turn China into the world’s biggest wind market and are now expanding globally."}],[{"start":98.4,"text":"Last month, China-headquartered Sany Renewable Energy announced its first large wind turbine in Europe, a 6.25 megawatt model in Spain supplying electricity to food business Grupo Jorge."}],[{"start":109.4,"text":"But so far China’s presence in Europe’s wind turbine industry is small: last year, Chinese manufacturers supplied 446MW of turbines to Europe, according to figures from the Global Wind Energy Council trade group, or less than 3 per cent of the total added during the year."}],[{"start":124.72,"text":"They have an uphill task to gain ground: European politicians and industry are fearful about their own highly successful wind champions, such as Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, losing out to China’s green tech giants which have already laid waste to Europe’s solar industry."}],[{"start":140.4,"text":"They are also worried about alleged cyber security risks and the potential influence of the Chinese state on China-headquartered companies, even those such as Ming Yang, which are not state owned."}],[{"start":151.68,"text":"In May, the UK government said there were national security risks associated with the use of Ming Yang’s wind turbines in offshore projects and it could not support their use, thwarting the company’s plans for a £1.5bn factory in Scotland."}],[{"start":166.28,"text":"The UK did not elaborate on its reasons for the decision but the FT had previously reported that the Trump administration had raised concerns. Zhang Chuanwei, Ming Yang’s chair, subsequently warned the UK government about the risks of “politicisation” of the investment."}],[{"start":182.42,"text":"On the continent, Europe has launched subsidy probes and is introducing several rules that would restrict Chinese-made turbines from projects that receive public subsidies."}],[{"start":192.54,"text":"Some industry executives have called for restrictions on “non-western” turbine makers selling into the EU."}],[{"start":198.66,"text":"In August last year, Ming Yang also parted ways “by mutual agreement” with developer Luxcara, which had picked the Chinese company as preferred supplier for an offshore wind project in Germany but drew scrutiny over the deal and ultimately switched to Siemens Gamesa."}],[{"start":214.6,"text":"Ming Yang has forged a tie-up, however, with Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest household energy supplier, led by high-profile entrepreneur and government adviser Greg Jackson. The two companies are exploring plans to install onshore turbines in Britain and Octopus is designing a system that would keep the turbines’ access, data and firmware under British management."}],[{"start":235.4,"text":"Ming Yang says the Chinese government would not be able to access data from its turbines in Europe or use a “kill switch” to disable them. Evers said he hoped the change of UK prime minister to Andy Burnham might open up an opportunity to review the position on its offshore products."}],[{"start":254.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787638475_8847.mp3"}