One of East Anglia's newest entrants to the burgeoning green energy industry has won a multi-million pound deal to install the first permanent offshore renewables structure in the Moray Firth.

Gaoh Energy was set up in Lowestoft by chief executive Paul Carter and a group of energy industry veterans last November with the aim of tapping the lucrative wind and renewables market.

Now Gaoh has won its first major contract - to erect a meteorological mast in the outer Moray Firth to capture environmental data such as wind-speed, barometric pressure and temperature.

The data will then be used on the design and operation of 200 turbines that will be erected 13 miles off Caithness in the third round of wind farm development off the UK coastline.

Moray Offshore Renewables Project Director, Dan Finch said: 'After 18 months of hard work, we have taken this project from first concept to first contract for steel in the sea.

'The offshore met mast will give us vital information about the wind and weather far distant from shore.

'We will use this to design and operate generating equipment to harness the maximum natural energy from the wind in the Outer Moray Firth, and send this on to as many as a million households across the country'.

It is understood that the award of the Gaoh contract will also see construction work on the met mast platform and other secondary steel work being offered to Lowestoft-based AKD Engineering.

Gaoh Energy chief executive, Paul Carter said: 'We are excited to be involved in this Round 3 initiative early in its development.

'This met mast not only signifies a major step in this particular project's development but also for the wider industry as we see Round 3 coming out of the boardroom and into reality.

'We can be confident that with the wealth of experience in the UK the challenge of mass deployment involved in Round 3 will be met and Gaoh Energy are proud to be at the forefront'.

Gaoh's Canning Road headquarters was opened by energy minister Charles Hendry in January. The firm has set its sights on reaching a �10m+ turnover within three years.