Wind farms consultancy blows into Daresbury

A GREEN energy consultancy from Ireland has opened a new base at the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus.

Entrust is a specialist consultancy offering planning consultancy and software to the wind energy sector, and is looking to capitalise on plans by Centrica to develop a huge offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea.

The company originally spun out of the Galway Innovation Centre, which is part of the National University of Ireland. It initially developed planning services for the telecoms sector, but found the technology could be adapted to help with the rollout of wind turbine infrastructure.

It has been helped to set up the office through the Northwest Regional Development Agency’s ‘Hello’ service, which offers relocating companies free office space for a year.

The service is delivered by inward investment agencies MIDAS and The Mersey Partnership in conjunction with office providers Avanta, Bruntwood, Orega, Manchester Science Parks, Liverpool Science Park and Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus.

Kieran Tarpey, managing director of Entrust, said: ‘My first impressions of the campus are extremely positive – I have already been introduced to a number of other companies, individuals and management support providers.

“The Campus is clearly a world class collaboration of science, research and business and there is tremendous positive energy and ‘can do’ attitude throughout.

“Over the next year our priority is to build up a profitable planning service within the onshore wind energy sector and to get a foothold into the offshore wind sector.”

A total of 18 businesses have now set up across the Northwest since the launch of the Hello scheme in January.