A high powered group bringing together major players from the public and private sector has been set up in Dundee in a bid to make the city Scotland's renewable energy capital.

Dundee Renewables, which was officially launched with a visit to the city's harbour, initially brings together the expertise of Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise and Forth Ports.

Vice convener of Dundee City Council's city development committee Craig Melville, who is representing the local authority at the event, said: "We are committed to helping to make sure that Dundee catches the crest of the renewable energy wave and the formation of this group is another vital step in that journey.

"Dundee is perfectly placed to make the most of the growing renewable energy boom with existing excellent facilities such as the deep water dock at Dundee Harbour, the wave and tidal power of the River Tay, our acknowledged annual hours of sunshine and the ground-breaking research emerging from our universities."

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Kevin Bazley, priority industries and commercialisation team leader, Scottish Enterprise added: "Offshore renewables is a significant opportunity for Scottish companies and Scottish Enterprise is keen to ensure that everything possible is done to maximise the benefits for the economy."

Charles Hammond, group chief executive of Forth Ports plc said the formation of Dundee Renewables is an important step in helping the city realise its potential for becoming a centre of excellence for renewables and supporting this high growth sector.

The group will be highlighting Dundee's facilities to companies in, or supplying to, the emerging market for renewable energy in Scotland.

Representatives of the group will be in Aberdeen at the UK's largest renewable energy exhibition and conference highlighting Dundee's special features to industry representatives from across the globe.

The facilities at the Port of Dundee make it an effective base for companies to service the burgeoning renewable energy sector. Development land is also available for renewables with key targets for the group being companies supporting wind and wave and tidal markets.

In addition to the port, several areas of development land within the city could be utilised for renewable energy businesses that do not need a quayside location.

It is thought that 25% of Europe’s wind and tidal power could be produced by Scotland with Government targets aiming for 18% of the nation’s electricity to be produced from renewable energy by 2010 and 40% by 2020.

(GK/JM)