NEARLY £1m is being made available to North-East businesses to help exploit micro-renewable technologies and opportunities.

The New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth, Northumberland, is launching its business support in micro-renewables project for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the region.

Micro-renewable technologies generate energy on a small scale, such as electricity capacity of up to 50kW or heat capacity up to 45kW.

The project is being part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13, securing £495,000 ERDF investment through regional development agency One North East. The agency is matching this amount from its Single Programme.

SMEs will be given support to develop new and emerging micro-renewable technologies, as well as providing support to encourage micro-renewable uptake.

During the two year project, Narec will also identify and fast-track at least three high profile projects involving micro-renewables.