THE inventors of a wind turbine system and software to keep commercial websites problem-free were honoured yesterday.

Evolving Generation, based in Crook, County Durham, has created a generator for wind turbines that can reduce the cost of generating electricity by 1p per unit.

Professor Edward Spooner, who founded the business, said: "This is a really important cost saving and there are lots of knock-on benefits.

"It means sites now that are marginal in terms of the benefit of turbines suddenly become feasible."

He is looking for investment of £3m to £5m to build a prototype, the next step before the product can be marketed commercially.

The company is a spin-off from Durham University and only has a staff of two, but will take on up to eight more for the manufacturing stage.

It received a £75,000 grant from the Small Business Service towards research costs.

The grant was one of 17, totalling £1.7m, made to North-East inventors. They were all honoured at a Research and Development Awards yesterday, held at Beamish Hall Hotel near Stanley, County Durham.

Entrants had to impress judges with their innovation in order to win funding.

Other winners included Dr Philip Aranzulla, of KommuniK, in Newton Aycliffe, near Darlington. Dr Aranzulla won £200,000 to develop a software package to detect and solve problems on e-commerce websites and e-mail accounts.

The grants are administered by One NorthEast.

Kate MacNaught, its head of business support and enterprise, said: "The businesses honoured with these awards are standard-bearers for the North-East, acting as an inspiration to other firms across our region."