Merseyside chance for £25m green energy research base
Merseyside will be offered the chance to lead Britain's offshore wind energy revolution today – as the home of a new £25m cutting-edge research base.
On a visit to Liverpool, Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce a contest to host an elite 'Technology and Innovation Centre' (TIC), to get bold ideas from "the drawing board to the market place".
The centre will be a place where companies can tap into expertise, equipment and finance, to develop their own in-house research and development. Around eight will be set up around the country – one already exists in advanced manufacturing, based in Rotherham – linked to first-class research at nearby universities.
The idea is to create a "critical mass" for innovation in a specific technology where there is both a potentially large global market – and a significant domestic capability.
Speaking today, Mr Cable will not say which part of the country is likely to host the offshore renewable energy TIC, but he will praise the "great" work done in Merseyside.
An aide told the Daily Post: "He will say he knows there are first-class businesses and research going on in this area, in offshore renewables – and great opportunities here for them."
The plans for the TIC – to focus on offshore wind, wave and tidal power, as well as the development of turbines and blades – come just weeks after £450m plans were unveiled to quadruple the size of the Liverpool Bay wind farm.
Around 2,000 workers will be involved in Denmark- based Dong Energy's proposals for a massive expansion of the Burbo Bank wind farm, four miles off the Crosby and Wirral coastline.
The announcement was seen as a big boost for maritime firms in Liverpool such as Cammell Laird – and the region's target to create 3,000 jobs in the industry by 2015.
Today, Mr Cable is expected to say: "Offshore renewables are essential to meeting our energy targets.
"We need to reduce costs as much as possible for the sake of consumers – and we need to harness technological innovation in the UK to boost our economy.
"The centre will concentrate on technologies for offshore wind, wave and tidal power – both on transferring knowledge from the established offshore engineering industry and on the development of marine and tidal systems, turbines and blades."
Mr Cable will speak to an invited audience of business leaders, particularly in the low-carbon economy, before visiting off and onshore renewables firms in the Port of Liverpool.
The offshore renewables TIC is the third announced, with a contest for the second – focusing on stem cell therapies – due to close next month.
The move comes in the same week as Mr Cable confirmed plans for a “Green Investment Bank”, to make its first investments from April next year – which ministers are hailing as a "world first".
For more Liverpool News from the Daily Post click here.
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