The big Government announcement today was the Regional Growth Fund (RGF). It’s the second round of the fund, that is worth £950m this time.
The Isle of Wight hasn’t come off well with it, but at least there’s been one success for the Island.
Vestas Technology UK have been successful in their bid.
We spoke to Rob Sauven, head of Vestas Technology UK, based on Stag Lane, “We’re glad that our scoping application that we put in was accepted,” he told VentnorBlog.
Next generation blade: V164
“It will bring on the development of our next generation blade, the V164 rotor, forward to production readiness.” He continued, “We been awarded the provisional go ahead, but we need to go through the contractual nicety and a due diligence process.”
The money will be delivered quarter by quarter, stretching to March 2014.
Where the money will go
VB asked what the money would go towards, “It’ll be split – the development of the technology (on the Island); process development (again on the Island); and
the training of production staff will most likely to be done on the Island too,” Rob told us.
With the R&D completed, the large scale production will be at their Sheerness plant.
The V164 rotors have a 164 metre dimension sweep, used for offshore installations. These blades could be used used off the Needles wind park.
