Blyth to get wind turbine training tower

Jun 26 2009 by Ben Guy, The Journal

BLYTH is to get a wind turbine training tower to help teach the industry’s technicians of the future, as more effort is made to make the town the industry’s skills centre.

The tower will be built at Northumberland College and assistant principal, Paul Cook, said: “The tower will allow us to increase the number of technicians that can be trained and enhance our reputation as the leading provider of wind energy skills training in the UK.

“The training tower and associated infrastructure includes the necessary internal and external features to deliver training courses as part of Northumberland College’s wind technician training.”

The tower will be built as part of a training partnership that also includes research and development group Narec and Mainstream Renewable Power, and is backed by regional development agency One North East.

Stephen Wilson, director of wind and marine at Blyth-based Narec, said: “Good training is vital to further establish the UK as the world leader in the wind sector and ensure maximum benefit for the country in terms of future jobs across the supply chain.

“Narec provides the ideal environment for training providers to deliver and develop new courses which equip personnel for work offshore and the tower is the first piece of the jigsaw to enable industry to achieve our challenging targets for new generation.” Industry estimates say offshore wind will permanently employ thousands of technicians in construction and long-term operations and maintenance jobs by 2020.