New Park part of Successful Consortium to Manage and Develop the Scottish Enterprise Energy Technology Centre

Scottish Enterprise has recently awarded a new three-year contract, to develop its Energy Technology Centre (ETC) in East Kilbride and expand its range of activities, to a consortium of businesses including New Park. The consortium is led by TUV NEL and also comprises Optimat, Orion Innovations and John Brown Engineering.

The new contract will ensure that the ETC can continue to keep Scotland and indeed the UK at the forefront of low carbon energy technology development. Under the broad themes of renewable energy and sustainable transport, earlier ETC pilot scheme projects included work on small wind turbines, fuel cells, biomass gasification and the development of hybrid vehicles.

“Low carbon energy technology will be one of the most important areas of innovation in the next decade and the ETC will help to ensure that Scotland and the rest of the UK play a significant part in its development,” says Scottish Enterprise’s Terry Hogg. “The ETC’s two year pilot scheme proved that there is a really diverse range of strong ideas out there, which given appropriate support should secure our position as a global player in this vital sector.

“The new contract will allow the ETC to continue to develop its range of services and progress low carbon energy innovations towards commercial viability.”

The consortium provides expertise across a number of disciplines including energy technology development, marketing and management consultancy, through to the identification and accessing of funds.

Commenting on the new contract, Murdo Mackenzie (New Park Executive Chairman) said “This is an exciting opportunity for companies to draw upon the expertise available from the consortium partners with the full support of the enterprise network to further strengthen Scotland and indeed the UK’s position as a global player in the development of technology in the low carbon sector. This initiative will bring a real, tangible, economic benefit and assist with the regeneration agenda throughout the country”.