Environmental technologies are evolving with money going into research and development and a strategic vision being developed to make the South West a UK leader in the sector. Christian Annesley reports.
Harnessing sustainable energy technologies can’t happen quickly enough. That’s not a doom-and-gloom prophecy but a reflection on the energy agenda in the UK.
The government has committed the country to ambitious targets to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. And in 2000, it pledged that by 2010 at least 10 per cent of the country’s electricity supply would come from renewable energy sources.
With less than a year to go that target won’t be reached. But the renewable energy agenda continues, and the focus is a neat pan-European goal that we can all conjure with: 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020.
But these abstract numbers are only a small part of the context for the South West’s environmental technologies sector, which continues to grow.
By the reckoning of the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), the sector consists of at least 1,300 enterprises, employs more than 20,000 people and contributes £1.3bn to the South West. And it estimates that the economy associated with the environment has the potential to develop 39,000 more jobs and £670m of extra output over the next few years. That’s partly because of the region’s geography, which has blessed us with some of Europe’s best wave energy resources.
But how do you define environmental technologies? The answer is complex because it’s a diverse sector and the meaning of sustainability is evolving.
Most people would say renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and tidal power were environmental technologies. And they would be right. But the sector also embraces waste management. This covers everything from cardboard recycling to growing industries such as energy-from-waste and accelerated composting. The way thinking around the carbon-efficiency agenda is changing is also captured by the change in emphasis of the RDA-backed agency Regen SW, which is now calling itself a sustainable energy agency rather than a renewable energy agency, reflecting its broader remit of energy efficiency and renewables.
Claire Gibson, director of sustainable resources at the South West RDA, says the agency wants its investments to have a zero-carbon impact overall, and investing in enviro-tech businesses is crucial to achieving that.
“We want the South West to lead the UK’s environmental agenda, and working with renewable energy companies and investing in research and development (R&D) around environmental technology is part of that,” she says. “With some technologies we have to take a long-term strategic view – and to second-guess which ones will make the grade commercially. But it’s important to make the commitment upfront.
“The lesson is there for all to see with wind energy. It’s a more mature, commercially viable technology, particularly in its onshore form, but the UK has missed out. When the technology was emerging in the 1980s and 1990s this country was leading edge, but Denmark kept up the investment and now dominates the space,” says Gibson.
“We missed a trick. We don’t want to again in relation to wave or tidal renewables – or any other technologies.”
To this end, the RDA has doubled its R&D grants, with university spin-outs among the likely beneficiaries, supported by initiatives such as the University of Bristol’s SETSquared technology incubator programme.
Feeding that flow of initiatives also requires the universities to keep up the skills pipeline, and engineering students in Bristol can now take courses in wind and marine power, making good use of the region’s commercial expertise.
“One reason for optimism that the talent pool will continue to grow is that maths and science-minded students may turn more willingly to engineering since the banking sector has lost some of its gloss,” says SETSquared’s Nick Sturge.
Forging stronger links between academia and businesses seems to hold the key to the sector’s evolution. And there are signs that’s starting to happen.
Knowledge transfer partnerships, in which postgraduates are embedded in businesses to work on projects, are in the RDA’s sights, and local initiatives such as BRITE – Bristol Technologies for the Environment – and the Bristol council-backed BETS project – Bristol Environmental Technologies and Services – are bringing different commercial and institutional groupings together. BETS was set up in 2006 to support the growth of the environmental technologies and services sector in the Bristol city region. Its purpose is to facilitate co-operation in the sector for business innovation and growth.
BETS complements the RDA’s agenda to the extent that it is local in its focus and is targeted more at the service end – consultancies that work with businesses to demonstrate how the sector’s operators can improve their sustainability and competitiveness.
Robin McDowell, BETS co-ordinator for marketing, investment and enterprise, says 2009 should be a significant year for the programme. “There are opportunities for environmental technologies businesses to show how they can help the city region’s companies cut costs,” he says.
“There has been plenty of debate about the importance of the sector and how it can drive business change, but we see this as the year when the benefits start to be realised.”
If McDowell is right, and if the R&D investment doesn’t dry up as the recession bites, the sector should soon start to deliver on its promise.
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