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Mitsubishi to invest £100 million in UK wind turbine project

Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe has signed an agreement today with the UK Government signalling its intention to invest up to £100 million in a wind turbine project.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband is the first step towards the development of turbines for the next generation of offshore wind farms.

The Government says it intends to support the project with up to £30 million in grants in hopes of securing the UK’s position as a manufacturing base for Mitsubishi in the future.

The current project will create up to 200 highly skilled jobs, while a manufacturing facility could create a further 1500 new positions.

Further cementing the North East as a centre for offshore wind development in the UK, Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband also announced funding of £18.5 million to establish a new test site off the coast near the existing New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth.

The test site will serve as technology demonstration and development platform for the next generation of wind turbines, which can be up to 100 m in length.

The project will initially put Mitsubishi’s 6MW second generation technology through its paces on- and offshore. Later phases will focus on the development of third generation offshore wind technology and composite turbine blades.

The new offshore test platform will complement plans for the world’s largest wind turbine test rig at Narec, which was recently announced by Government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).

“This decision by Mitsubishi is a sign that the UK is starting to turn its leadership in offshore wind generation into leadership in manufacturing,” says Miliband. “We have the wind resource and we now have an industry that is really starting to grow.”

For further information:
www.mpshq.com/
www.berr.gov.uk/
www.decc.gov.uk/
www.narec.co.uk/

25 February 2010

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