North East powers up plans for UK's first training turbine

A new wind industry consortium yesterday announced plans to install the country's first wind turbine training tower at the fast-expanding Narec renewable energy research centre in Blyth, Northumberland, in a move designed to bolster the number of qualified engineers serving the UK's burgeoning wind energy industry.

The new turbine is backed by a public-private consortium, Narec, wind farm developer Mainstream Renewable Power, Regional Development Agency One North East, and Northumberland College, which will run training courses using the new turbine.

The announcement comes just a day after the government announced that plans to generate power for up to 20 million homes using offshore wind farms could support up to 70,000 jobs. However, some within the industry are fearful that without investment in new training facilities and skills development the sector will struggle to meet its ambitious growth targets.

Paul Cook, assistant principal at Northumberland College, said that the new training tower would help address any future skills gap by increasing the number of technicians the college can train.

His comments were echoed by Emmet Curley of Mainstream Renewable Power, who told BusinessGreen.com that the new turbine represented the "first step " in the industries efforts to bolster its training capacity.

"We have identified that with the huge plans for offshore expansion there is a huge gap between the skills we have at the moment and the construction and operations skills we will need over the next decade," he said. "This move is very much the first step and there;s a long way to go if we are to build the necessary skills base."

The move also further underlines the North East as a something of a development hub for the UK's wind energy industry. According to government figures, released last year at the opening of the Narec centre, the wind industry could support up to 30,000 jobs in the region.

Narec is also working on expanding its current 70 million blade testing facility, with a view to becoming the world's largest blade and drive train testing site and a home to both on and offshore research projects.