Renewables promotion group gets green light

A partnership of 18 regions and organisations including the East of England Energy Group and Suffolk County Council designed to raise awareness of the benefits of renewable energy has received £4 million in EU funding.

The POWER CLUSTER scheme includes partners in the UK, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden and follows on from the Pushing Offshore Wind Energy Regions (Power) project.

The project will carry out studies to discover how the offshore wind industry can learn from its predecessor, the oil and gas industry, particularly with regards to cost cutting and safety.

The project will also set up a web based tool to facilitate searching for energy related EU projects.

EEGR will be working on the supply chain, including the workforce skills required for energy projects and will focus on attracting workers to the sector.

John Best, CEO, EEEGR said: "I am really pleased to work with Suffolk County Council on this project. When we began POWER (Pushing Offshore Wind Energy Regions) almost 4 years ago an offshore renewable centre in the East of England was just a ‘project proposal’.

"Today OrbisEnergy in Lowestoft is built and ready to deliver flexible office, boardroom and conferencing facilities for more than 30 small and medium sized companies involved in this fast expanding energy industry sector. The timing is perfect!"