A WIND farm developer building two multi-million pound schemes has seen more than 130 North-East firms register their interest in bidding for contracts.

County Durham firm Banks Renewables held its first Meet the Buyer event in the region to help firms in the North-East find out more about the opportunities being offered to the region’s suppliers.

The developer has already secured planning approval for the Moor House and Lambs Hill wind farms, located to the north east of Darlington and north west of Stockton, and estimates it will invest around £32.6m in the development of the two schemes.

It is has also submitted two further planning applications in the region, for the Windy Bank scheme in Teesdale, and the Bank Field project to the north of Guisborough.

The company has a policy of using a local supply chain as far as is practicable on regional developments, and held the event in Sedgefield to help identify prospective suppliers for all aspects of the projects.

Available tenders vary from construction-related work to less obvious aspects of the projects, including catering, fencing and site security.

Tony Henderson, director of Gateshead and Middlesbrough-based Koru Property Services, who attended the event, said: “Construction has obviously been quite hard hit over the last four years now and renewables is an area that we’re very keen to get into and grow this as a separate part of our business, not just in the north east, but right across the UK.

“I’m passionate about renewables, and about wind farms in particular, and winning contracts on Banks’ north east schemes will enable us to allocate a core team of experienced construction staff to the sector – we employ just under 40 people at the moment, and have the capacity to increase that figure to 50 or more if we can bring in the work.”

Companies who were unable to attend the event, but who would like to put forward their details for consideration can do so by emailing rachel.dowson@banksgroup.co.uk