Japan’s engineering giant Mitsubishi commits £100m to UK offshore turbine project

25 February 2010

Japanese engineering firm Mitsubishi is to enter the UK offshore wind market with a £100m investment agreement signed with the government.

An additional sum of up to £30m will also be supplied by the UK Government to fund the research and development wind turbine project that will see Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe create about 200 jobs.

The memorandum of understanding is the first step towards the production of wind turbines for the next generation of offshore wind farms, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change said.

The funding will come from the £950m Government’s Strategic Investment Fund (SIF).

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband also announced new funding of £18.5m for an offshore wind test site in the north east of England.

The site, off the coast near the New and Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, will act as a technology and development platform for the next generation of large multi-megawatt offshore wind turbines and add weight to the government’s support for a blade test facility to assess turbines up to 100 metres in length.

Miliband said the decision by Mitsubishi is a sign that the UK is starting to turn its leadership in offshore wind generation into leadership in manufacturing.

‘We have the wind resource and we now have an industry that is really starting to grow. This is possible because of our domestic market and our commitment to support companies that locate here. It is another step to turning Britain into a leading green manufacturing centre,’ he said.

British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) chief executive Maria McCaffery said, ‘BWEA is delighted with today’s announcement which underlines the keen interest of major international players in the UK wind energy programme. This tremendous commitment from Mitsubishi and the UK government follows last week’s major announcement of the start of the new Clipper Windpower factory in Newcastle upon Tyne, which will be home to the largest wind turbine blade in the world.’

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ ship building division has been interested in entering the offshore wind installation market as well as the operation and maintenance vessel market.

Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe CEO Akio Fukui and senior executive vice president Ichiro Fukue issued a joint statement and said the company wants to further its growing offshore wind business and bring much needed competition into the offshore wind turbine supply market and economic benefit to the UK.

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: wind

This story was published on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Asia, Europe, deals, wind. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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