Scottish wind firms announce collaboration

David Steele (left) from Wind Towers and Graham Brown from Burcote Wind in front of a tower section

A renewable energy firm that plans to invest £1bn developing wind farms in Scotland is to collaborate with the country's only wind tower producer.

Burcote Wind said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kintyre-based Wind Towers.

The Dunfermline company said the move was aimed at keeping as much investment in Scotland as possible.

The deal includes collaborating on an apprenticeship and training scheme to help create lasting jobs in Scotland.

In March, Burcote announced it had a pipeline of wind farm projects, totalling nearly 800MW of installed electricity generating capacity, at 10 locations across Scotland.

They include Meikleton (Aberdeenshire), Creggan (Argyll and Bute), Sandy Knowe and Benshinnie (both Dumfries and Galloway).

Burcote said the developments, if approved, could create almost 600 jobs in construction and maintenance.

Wind Towers, which is a joint venture between SSE Venture Capital and Marsh Wind Technology and supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, already employs 110 people at its facility in Machrihanish.

'Unprecedented steps'

Under the terms of the memorandum, Burcote will offer Wind Towers the chance to supply towers for its projects in Scotland, where technically and commercially possible.

Wind Towers will in return provide technical, commercial and operational support to Burcote's projects.

Burcote chairman Graham Brown said: "Burcote Wind's philosophy is to focus on supporting Scottish economic growth and to direct as much of our capital and operating expenditure as possible through Scottish companies in order to create jobs in Scotland.

"That is why we are taking the unprecedented step of concluding a memorandum of understanding, which we hope will support highly-skilled employment and training opportunities at Scotland's only wind tower manufacturing facility.

"This will assist in building capacity in Scotland's manufacturing base so that, as a country, we can take full advantage of the renewables revolution."

David Steele, head of business development at Wind Towers, said his company was seeking to broaden its product, service and customer bases in order to ramp up capacity.

"It is our shared objective to make sure that the growth of the renewable energy sector in Scotland creates jobs and opportunities here which contribute to our country's overall economic prosperity," he added.