A thriving renewable energy connection business has won a contract that could help develop the UK's first 'Renewables Ready Region'.

Econnect, based in Hexham, Northumberland, has been awarded the contract by regional development agency One NorthEast, to complete a feasibility study based around connecting small to medium-sized renewable energy technologies onto the existing electricity national grid network.

The contract could potentially free the way for community generation schemes to connect to the grid without the need for expensive cable upgrades, or digging up roads.

It could also lead to North East England becoming a net exporter of renewable energy across the UK and potentially into Europe.

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The feasibility study to be carried out by Econnect already has the support of network operator CE Electric who is keen to investigate possibilities for increasing the amount of green community energy distributed by its existing networks.

Mark Pearson, Business Strategy Manager at One NorthEast said: "Energy and Environment is one of the three pillars for generating economic growth in the North East. We are very excited by the opportunities around distributed and community based energy and are keen to deepen our understanding.

"This research project will investigate how we can economically connect small to medium-sized energy generation to the electricity grid without the need for major upgrades. This includes hydro, wind turbines, solar power, landfill gas, and other low carbon technologies."

Almost 30 expressions of interest were received by One NorthEast and seven tenders were eventually submitted. Econnect will also work closely with North Energy on the planning aspects of the study.

Econnect recently completed a connection study on behalf of the Crown Estate which detailed the feasibility of running an interconnector down the east coast of Scotland. The suggestion won strong accolades from those opposing plans for an onshore cable running down the centre of Scotland.

(JM)