MSP in bid to secure wind turbine jobs

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 08:51

HUNDREDS of new Scottish jobs could go overseas unless the Scottish Government steps in to help a Midlothian company making state-of-the-art wind turbines, Labour MSP Rhona Brankin claimed today.

Renewable Devices, a turbine firm based at the Bush Estate, wants to build a Scottish manufacturing facility.

But neither government agency Scottish Enterprise nor private investor Insurance Australia Group (IAG) will commit to the project without a written guarantee from the other. And there are fears the firm may have to site its factory in Germany instead.

Ms Brankin said: "The firm is at the cutting edge of domestic wind turbine design and they already have orders to support 100 jobs with the potential for many hundreds more jobs to be created.

"It would be a tragedy if these jobs went abroad because of a bureaucratic logjam."

She said she had taken Renewable Devices directors to meet enterprise minister Jim Mather last week to make him fully aware of the issue. She said. "There is massive untapped potential in the renewable energy sector and here we have an indigenous Scottish firm which is very well placed to take full advantage of the opportunities in this market."