Seemingly inexhaustible energy from the sea and storms is seen as a possible solution to power shortages.

Harnessing that energy is one of the tasks of the New and Renewable Energy Centre. In the latest in a series of interviews with the chief executives of the region's centres of excellence, Business Correspondent Jonathan Jones meets Doug Everard.

HARNESSING the power of the wind and waves is seen as a possible alternative to the UK's dwindling reserves of oil and natural gas.

At present, only about two per cent of the UK's electricity comes from such sources, but there are plans to increase that to ten per cent by 2010.

That is one of the main aims of Cambridge graduate Doug Everard, chief executive of the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC), one of regional development agency One North-East's five centres of excellence.

NaREC employs about 25 staff, mainly technology experts and engineers, but Jamaican-born Mr Everard, who has a masters degree in business administration, hopes that number will double as new facilities are developed.

He said: "There are great opportunities for renewable forms of energy, driven by the Government's pledge that a fifth of the UK's energy will come from renewable sources by 2020.

"It is an ambitious target, not helped by the fact that electricity prices are currently at an all-time low."

He said: "Wave and tidal power are capable of delivering a significant proportion of the energy needs of the UK. At the moment, the biggest wind turbines we can build are about 35m-high with blades 100ft long. However, by moving to sites offshore, not only are we better positioned to harness the wind, but we also have the capability to build bigger turbines, of up to 65m-high with blades 200ft long.

"Eventually we hope to have turbines 100m high, with blades 300ft long situated on sites five to ten miles out to sea.

"There is no shortage of imaginative schemes for capturing the energy of wind and sea offshore, but delivering the electricity at a competitive price is not easy.

"Back in the 1980s, the UK was setting the pace in the development of wind farms, but in recent years, Denmark and Germany have created a real market for the new technology, and as a result we have lost a major manufacturing opportunity for this area."

NaREC is taking up the challenge of developing new technologies and techniques for harnessing tidal and wind power, in combination with the research expertise of the region's universities, in particular Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria.

It is also developing links with the Centre of Excellence for Process Innovation, based on Teesside, where NaREC hopes to help with work on fuel cells and the development of hydrogen as a form of energy.

It also plans to develop links with Codeworks, the centre of excellence for digital technology, and the Centre of Excellence for Photonics and Nanotechnology.

Its work with Codeworks will focus on the writing of software programmes for the renewables sector, while nanotechnology is fully expected to change the use of power in the UK.

Mr Everard said: "In the North-East, we understand the offshore environment. At NaREC we are trying to take ideas from wherever they happen and develop them. That work is expected to involve links with all the region's centres of excellence.

"The blue sky thinking we need to develop will not only take place at the centres, but also in the region's universities or local companies, with NaREC providing the expertise to help them tailor the research to a point where we can make a case. We have very good renewables research particularly in Newcastle, Durham and Northumbria universities.

"Although we are playing catch-up with the Danes and the Germans, I can see a time when we have a supply chain of around 300 companies, combined with the expertise in our universities, which will establish this region as a major manufacturing base for wind turbines.

"Within 15 years I expect thousands of jobs to have been created in the renewable energy sector in the North-East.

"By sharing information and promoting co-operation, I am convinced that we can speed the commercial realisation of ocean energy and help to create a new British offshore renewables industry."

To help NaREC towards that objective, One NorthEast has spent £5.3m buying eight hectares of land and buildings at Wimbourne Quay, in Blyth, to provide more space for the expansion of NaREC, which needs additional testing facilities for wave, wind and solar power research. It will expand its testing facilities to incorporate the largest wave tank in Europe as well as use existing building space to test blades for wind turbines and construct a building to house a power network.

Mr Everard said: "The land purchase underpins the availability of space for us to expand into in the future, and demonstrates our commitment to Blyth and the on-going development of the town.

"One NorthEast's vision is for us to create wealth and employment in this region, which I am sure we can do."

Published: 07/10/2003