A wind power project in south west Scotland has received a £5 million boost towards developing new technologies.

Kite Power Systems (KPS) received the investment from E.ON, Schlumberger and Shell Technology Ventures (STV).

The funding will be used to develop a 500kW onshore power system at West Freugh in south west Scotland by 2017.

Planned onshore demonstrations of multiple systems will take place over the next three to four years, eventually leading to the development of a 3MW onshore system at West Freugh before a similar sized power system is deployed in offshore waters.

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Paul Jones, Chief Financial Officer of KPS, said the £5m investment is "an endorsement of the R&D work that the KPS team has carried out".

"The backing of these companies will accelerate KPS's commercial development plans towards deploying lower cost, deep-water offshore wind energy on a global scale," he said.

Frank Meyer, Senior Vice President B2C & Innovation at E.ON, added: "E.ON has been looking into airborne wind technologies for five years. The approach of Kite Power Solutions has the potential to become a game changer for the wind energy market. It supports one of our overall targets to drive down the costs for renewable energy."

(LM)