Member Article

North East gets wind turbine contracts

A multi-million pound project to build the world’s biggest wind turbines will be based in the North East.

The government has given the go-ahead, and officials have awarded £4.4m towards the construction of a new plant that will be at the cutting edge of turbine blade design.

It will be responsible for design and build of prototype turbine blades for the so-called Britannia Project - a £30m plan to build the biggest turbines in the world.

Californian company Clipper Wind Power will be responsible for the project.

It has identified a site on the banks of the Tyne where the blades, which will weigh more than 30 tonnes and stand 70m tall, will be built.

The factory is due to open next year and will employ 60 people.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband said: “Our coastline means the offshore wind industry has the potential to employ tens of thousands of workers by 2020, manufacturing, transporting, installing and operating the new turbines.

“It will take an active government to get us there and the funds I am announcing today are part of the £120 million investment we are making this year and next in the wind industry to make that happen.”

The blades will power a 10 mega watt turbine standing 175 metres in height which, over its lifetime, is expected to produce the equivalent power to more than two million barrels of oil.

It will also offset the need to dispel 480,000 tons of CO2 into the earth’s atmosphere.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .