On Tuesday 28th September, we welcomed the new Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Greg Hands from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), on a tour of our National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth.
The Minister visited our High Voltage Electrical Laboratory, where we have partnered with and supported JDR Cables over many years with innovation, testing and demonstration as they developed cabling technologies for the offshore wind sector, most notably their 66kV cable infrastructure. The Catapult has been JDR’s trusted research and development partner for over a decade. Today’s announcement of JDR’s new factory in the North East is a welcome step towards achieving Net Zero, creating momentum for a strong UK supply chain, indigenous manufacturing and hundreds of jobs.
The Minister also witnessed first-hand the size and scale of the latest offshore wind technologies being tested in the UK, including LM Wind Power’s 107m blade and GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X offshore wind turbine nacelle, ahead of their deployment at the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank.
ORE Catapult’s Test & Validation Director, Tony Quinn, hosted the visit and underlined how vital continued investment in our next-generation of world-leading test assets is to achieving the UK’s Net Zero targets by 2050 and growing a strong UK supply chain.