A WIND farm off the Yorkshire coast is to create "massive" opportunities for businesses directly and indirectly related to renewables.

Nick Taylor, Scarborough’s Renaissance manager, said the project to create up to 1,000 wind turbines in the ‘Greater Wash’ area and 2,500 turbines at Dogger Bank, which would supply more than 10 per cent of the country’s electricity, will create many more business opportunities than the obvious, which will be explained at a meeting tomorrow at Whitby Pavillion between 9am and 3pm.

Nick said: “The event will highlight to local business people what a massive opportunity is coming our way, and to larger players nationally that we’re very keen in Whitby and Scarborough to be doing business with the renewables industry.”

He said the services required for the constant maintenance of the wind turbines do not already exist in the region, so it presents an opportunity for Yorkshire engineering companies to diversify.

Other services will be needed, such as manufacture and maintenance of Catamarans to travel out to the site, as well as training, treating the turbine blades and manufacturing protective clothing.

“This is an area where a lot of people have been made redundant from the fishing industry and there are huge maritime opportunities for them.”

He said that the project would require a complete mind shift, with companies designing and making things on a larger scale than they have done before. “We will also have to start making our children in secondary schools realise it’s a good career option and develop a curriculum to train and develop people in this area,” he said.

Scarborough Borough Council is creating a Whitby and Scarborough Off-Shore Wind network to link together stakeholders who have a part to play in this opportunity.

Speakers at the event include representatives from Forewind, the joint venture consortium running the project, wind farm operator DONG Energy, Yorkshire Forward, Team Humber Marine Alliance, and Professor Jack Hardisty, Professor of Environmental Physics at the University of Hull and Technical Director of Neptune Renewable Energy.