Turbine blades company gets backing from US

Mar 11 2010 By Adam Jupp, The Journal

THE firm set to build giant wind turbine blades on Tyneside has secured more than £125m of investment from a US backer.

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) has paid £126m for a 49.5% share in Clipper Windpower, which has a base in Blyth, Northumberland.

It comes after the renewables firm revealed it was moving into a new factory on the site of the former Neptune shipyard, where it was manufacture blades for its Britannia offshore turbines.

The unit is being built by marine giants Shepherd Offshore, who are now the biggest commercial landlords on the North Bank of the Tyne.

It comes amid moves to make the North East a world-leading hub for green energy, with the New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec), also in Blyth, bagging grants to test turbines.

Last month, it was given £18.5m to build a facility to trial fully-built turbines off the Northumberland coast before they are sent to the final destinations in British seas.

Clipper also said yesterday that it expects to post a loss in the second half partly due to order deferrals and the delayed commissioning of turbines. The loss is likely to be around the same size as the £80m deficit posted for the first half in September. Clipper said it expects revenue in 2009 of about £495m from the sale of 259 turbines.

UTC, the maker of Sikorsky helicopters and Pratt & Whitney aero engines, spent £126m in the deal, and yesterday announced former director Mauricio Quintana will be Clipper’s new chief executive with the resignation of Doug Pertz after 18 months in the job. Quintan has been director of corporate strategy and development at United Technologies Corp for the past two years.

The news of UTC’s investment in Clipper and a change to its management has been described by sources close to the firm as a "new era."

It has also raised hopes of further job creation on Tyneside, where business leaders are working hard to sign further deals to see other pieces of turbines, such as towers, motors and foundations, built.

Clipper’s Britannia prototype has already been adopted by the Crown Estate, which manages the waters off Britain and recently announced the locations where wind farms will be based.

They include Dogger Bank, Teesside, which will eventually have the capacity to generate enough wind energy to meet 10% of the UK’s needs.

Clipper was one of the biggest flotations on London’s AIM market in 2005 .