Which way is the wind blowing: the strange case of Vestas Blades UK

The government publishes a new energy white paper tomorrow. The Guardian has an interview with the Energy and Climate Change secretary Ed Miliband about its contents here.

On Monday Miliband opened Little Cheyne Court in Kent, "the largest onshore wind farm in the south-east of England". It's on Romney Marsh in Kent. Local Tory MP Michael Howard opposed the wind farm. I'm with Ed Miliband on this issue: "Opposing wind farms should be socially taboo, says Ed Miliband". And, yes, I would have one in my backyard.

Right now, the UK's only wind turbine blade manufacturer, Vestas Blades UK, is due to close on the Isle of Wight with the direct loss of 600 jobs. Vestas say there is not enough UK demand for the type of blades they make on the island, and they are moving production to the US and China. Critics are inclined to believe that Vestas just want to make blades where the wages are lower.

Here's one seeming paradox that could be easily solved, it seems to me, by a method that is good enough for failing banks: nationalisation of the closing plant. And, unlike nationalised banks, the Isle of Wight plant turns a profit.