A £20M wind turbine plant is creating hundreds of jobs as the region bids to become an international centre for the renewables industry.
The initial phase of development will create 100 jobs, and a further 300 workers will be needed to service orders as engineering group TAG Energy Solutions builds a factory to manufacture offshore wind turbine foundations on the banks of the River Tees.
The plant at Haverton Hill, near Stockton, is under construction and is expected to be complete in spring.
Alex Dawson, chief executive of TAG Energy Solutions, said it was a new dawn for manufacturing in the North- East. He said: “I think there is a real push to make the North- East a centre of excellence for renewables.
“With ourselves, it is almost the last piece of the jigsaw for a developer coming to the North-East and getting everything he wants in one place.”
Underlining the region’s green energy credentials is Hartlepool firm JDR Cables, a world leader in cables to connect wind turbines, Clipper Windpower, which is developing the world’s largest turbine blade at a £25m riverside plant near Newcastle, and Europe’s leading wind turbine testing factory is at the New and Renewable Energy Centre, in Northumberland.
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