Ming Yang, one of China's biggest wind turbine makers, wanted to revive a former North Sea fabrication yard with a £1.5 billion factory and up to 1,500 jobs at the outset. For nearly 30 years, thousands of workers there built the giant platforms that opened up North Sea oil.
Few countries are more exposed to the shock. Less than half of the UK's gas now comes from its own North Sea fields, and much of what it imports comes from places that have proved unstable or unreliable.
There are two ways to make Britain's energy more homegrown: drill for more of it, or build more of it. The government's opponents are already blaming high bills on its reluctance to drill.
The UK already buys nearly a quarter of its imported gas from America and much of its clean-energy equipment from China.
Energy and climate policy has become the front line in a contest between the world's two energy superpowers, leaving other countries squeezed between them.
Gas-fired stations still frequently set wholesale power prices, so any savings from other sources are not always reflected in customer bills.
Forecasts from British Gas, EDF and E.ON suggest a typical annual bill could jump by more than a quarter in January, about £460 extra.
Winter is expected to push prices higher still. Demand for gas is rising just as Europe's winter gas stores stand at their lowest since records began in 2011.
Asked which mattered most, bills or climate, Fahnbulleh said affordability was her overriding objective"without a doubt"while the cost of living was biting."We are far too exposed to global markets we have no control over,"she said."That will bring our bills down,"Reform UK's Richard Tice said.