• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Jobs That Will Blow You Away ; CUTTING-EDGE CAREERS The Green Energy Sector is Crying Out for Staff, From Engineers to Marketing People, Says Tim Walker

Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tim Walker

Argyll and the Islands, off the west coast of Scotland, offer the rest of the UK a glimpse of the future of our energy resources, and of career opportunities in the renewable, green energy sector.

The Highland region is home to a group of wind farms run by Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power. Its forests provide a vast natural resource for various biomass combined heat and power (CHP) systems, such as the boiler that heats the Mid Argyll swimming pool in Lochgilphead. Some of the island communities use geothermal energy sources (harnessing the heat found near the surface of the earth) and solar power' and the long coastline boasts the world's first commercial wave-powered generator, supplying power to the island of Islay.

"The renewable energy sector is about fitting a lot of different technologies together," says Philip Clough of Green Energy Jobs, an online recruitment agency based in Argyll. "It's a question of ratio," he says. "What works as a renewable resource in one area might not be so effective elsewhere, so the sector will always need a range of different technologies and expertise."

The renewable energy industry ranges from large-scale wind farming to wave and tidal energy systems, new technologies that pose an exciting challenge for adventurous engineering experts like those from Queen's University, Belfast, who designed Islay's "Limpet" (Land Installed Marine Powered Electricity Turbine) wave-power system for Wavegen, a marine energy company.

Biomass Engineering, a St Helen's-based firm producing "gasification" systems, which convert woodchip, leather waste, animal by-products and other biomass-based fuels into power, works with consultant engineers and scientists from Aston University. Jim Campion, the managing director, says that while the people developing the technology are obviously crucial, "there's been a huge commercial growth in the industry, so there's a need for professional nous at the business and management end, too".

Campion's company produces small-scale industrial biomass power stations for farmers to convert energy crops into commercial electricity. But CHP systems are in use in London, too. Every new planning application that passes across Ken Livingstone's desk now has to commit, where feasible, to tapping 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources.

It's not only commercial operations and the Government that are engaged in the shift towards green energy, says Graham Meek of the Renewable Energy Association. "There are a lot of career opportunities in small-scale domestic technologies, for example: manufacturing and supplying home solar panels, rooftop wind turbines, woodfuel boilers and ground source heat pumps, which are buried in the ground to convert the ambient energy in the soil to heat the home," he says. "The sector is extremely varied. You have niche players, but also opportunities within major businesses such as Vestas and Nordex, two large Scandinavian wind turbine manufacturers with UK facilities."

Many people choose the green energy industry because they want an ethically sound career, and those same people may be sceptical about the green credentials of big oil - BP or Shell, for example. But even the multinational energy giants now acknowledge that fossil fuels are finite, and that they must diversify. BP, which has begun to rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum", has launched a new business, BP Alternative Energy, to invest in solar, wind and other alternative power sources to the tune of about pounds 4.5bn over the next decade. Shell, meanwhile, has a significant stake in the London Array project to build one of the UK's largest wind farms in the Thames Estuary, which would produce the same power output as a regular coal-fired power station.

As an example of the diversity in the renewables sector, Meek cites the case of two investors in the UK biofuels market, which he says is set to grow strongly. British Sugar, a large, established company, has diversified by investing in a bioethanol (green fuel) facility at Wissington, Suffolk. Green Spirit Fuels, a small company, has spotted the same market gap and built a similar refinery in the West Country. Both have every chance of success.

"The renewable energy sector encompasses both established companies and technologies, and new ones," says Meek. "Their varying degrees of development mean that their company cultures also vary."

Source: Independent, The; London (UK)

More News in this Category