Investors to boost North East green energy growth

Aug 24 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

The deal will give Narec, which is charged with leading the development of renewable energy nationwide, far more power to build companies and bring jobs to the North East.

“We are a national centre and this funding will make us a much bigger player in the green energy revolution in world terms. It is game-changing and the message is that we are open for business,” added Dr Lowdon.

A third of Narec’s funding currently comes from the commercialisation of its technology and the rest from the Government and Europe. Despite public spending cuts it expects an increase in government investment.

John Blamire, director of Ashberg, which was launched earlier this year by City investment professionals, said Narec was a perfect fit for the investors his firm represents.

“We look after families of very high net worth, that is they have wealth and assets of at least £50m. They have made their money and they want to invest it in certain areas and they see renewable energy as a rising tide,” he said.

“Narec is the centre of this industry and that is why we wanted an exclusive agreement to invest in the technology they are developing. They are a perfect partner for us.

“The commercialisation of this technology has great potential and as the investments are made it will clearly have a lot of beneficial effects for industry in the North East.”

Earlier this year, Narec was awarded £18.5m to build an offshore wind turbine test site by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

It will see giant turbines “plugged into” test units as close as 50m to the North East coastline, where they will be put through their paces before being sent out to sea for use in wind farms.

The Narec centre will have the capacity to test 20 prototype turbines at a time.

The new deal comes after the Crown Estate, which overseas British waters, announced the latest set of locations where wind farms will be based. That all forms part of efforts to meet EU targets for the amount of energy generated from green sources by 2020.

For more stories on the Great North Revolution campaign, visit www.nebusiness.co.uk/revolution