Mitsubishi to invest £100M in green energy centre

Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe Ltd (MPSE) is to invest up to £100 million in an engineering facility in Edinburgh, to carry out research and development into offshore wind turbine technology.

The Centre for Advanced Technology in Edinburgh will progress green energy technologies, including wind turbines, towards mass production. As part of its plan Mitsubishi is acquiring Artemis Intelligent Power, an Edinburgh University spin out, which has developed wind turbine transmission technology that has the potential to produce lightweight, robust power transfer systems, making wind turbines cheaper to build and maintain. The aim is to replace unreliable, maintenance-intensive gearboxes with computer-controlled hydraulic transmission systems.

MPSE Chief Executive Officer Akio Fukui said the investment builds on existing partnerships on low carbon energy developments, including offshore wind, that the company has in Scotland.

Atsushi Maekawa, Vice President of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), said, “Today’s announcement of our plans for R&D in the Scotland marks another significant milestone for Mitsubishi in developing market-leading low carbon energy generation products.”

Win Rampen, Managing Director of Artemis said the acquisition, “Marks a huge step forward for the development of our game-changing technology. Drawing on the breadth and depth of MHI expertise and skills, [we] look forward to accelerating our R&D work with a view to our technology being used in turbines in UK and European waters by 2015.”