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Blyth showcases renewables sector

Blyth’s importance in the renewable energy industry was showcased over the weekend to businesses and the public in a series of events.

Centrepiece to the third Blyth Renewables Festival was the tall ship Stavros S Niarchos, which demonstrated an early example of wind energy in action.

The event featured an opportunity for business networking on Friday and festival visitors were able to find out more about Blyth’s renewable cluster at a Renewables Village Marquee, packed with information and interactive displays from local firms working in the sector.

Narec, the National Renewable Energy Centre, is a key part of the Blyth cluster. Currently marking its tenth anniversary, Narec is involved in research and development programmes worth around £30m and earlier this month showed off its work to 200 UK and European policymakers and investors.

Blyth is also home RES, which is planning to build a biomass power station in the town, plus wind turbine company SKM and renewables fabricator MTL.

Mark Thompson, commercial manager at Port of Blyth, one of the festival’s organisers, said: “Renewables is incredibly important to Blyth.

“The port is one of the biggest import terminals in the North East for turbines - in fact one of the biggest down the East coast.

“Everybody has clubbed together to show off Blyth as the renewables estuary that it is. It is a significant cluster and we’re promoting that.

“It all started from having the turbines on the Quay Wall. We have developed a reputation and we do a lot of business through it.”

The Blyth Renewables Festival was originally an annual event in 2010 and 2011 and is now staged every two years. It aims to highlight the local role of the expanding industry to the public as well as potential investors.

Visitors were able to go on board the 18- sail two-mastered brig Stavros S Niarchos, plus there was a series of street entertainment, including a fairground, live music and river trips.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Karen Dent .