Mitsubishi announced today it will create a £100 million research center in England’s northeast to research turbine blades, creating up to 200 jobs, according to a release from the Department of Energy & Climate Change.
The British government is chipping in £30 million in grants to supprt the project in hopes of enticing Mitsubishi to build a manufacturing facility in the UK in the future, which could bring up to 1,500 jobs.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding today with Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe, according to the release.
However, there was a bit of disagreement in the British media about whether the location of the research center is a done deal.
Mitsubishi Power Systems Chief Executive Officer Akio Fukui said the company is considering several locations for its research facility, according to the BBC.
Other publications suggested that the location of the turbine manufacturing plant is up in the air but the research facility is a done deal.
The government also announced £18.5 million of funding for a separate offshore wind test site at the New and Renewable energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth, Northumberland.
Britain is trying to establish itself as a hub for offshore wind design and manufacturing and has invested heavily in that goal with £75 billion in proposed offshore wind projects announced in January.
California’s Clipper Windpower announced plans last week to build a plant in the UK to take advantage of the growth in demand for offshore turbines.
The big prize in today’s deal is the manufacturing facility that Mitsubishi Wind Power Systems Europe is dangling in front of the government.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said:
Mitsubishi’s investment in wind turbine R&D and the creation of 200 highly skilled jobs is great news for our future plans in low carbon, high technology industries. The UK is now well placed to manufacture the turbines needed for the next generation of offshore wind farms. We will continue to work with Mitsubishi to secure production in the UK.
The grant funding comes from the government’s Strategic Investment Fund, but will be subject to European Commission approval.
The site would entail prototype assembly, onshore and offshore testing of Mitsubishi’s 6-megawatt turbine technology and the development of third generation wind technology, including the design and development of composite offshore wind turbine blades.