In late 2012 Areva, which is majority owned by the Frenchgovernment, confirmed plans to build an offshore wind turbine factory inScotland – possibly near Edinburgh.

Approaches from UK-based companies looking to supplyAreva have "typically not been researched all that well, not been verywell thought-through", says Andrew Bellamy, senior industrial project managerfor Areva Wind UK.

While taking care to note that "not all" UKapproaches have been substandard, Bellamy adds that "it's not uncommon forus to have companies come to visit, wanting to pitch to us, who actually don'teven know what we do".