The UK has turned itself into a hot-bed of development activity for renewable energy technologies such as tidal, wind and solar power generation.
With the coalition government maintaining the last government’s enthusiasm for the renewable energy sector, there is every chance that the UK could create one of the moist active green energy engineering sectors in Europe.
Significantly, development activity is not limited to one technology or just a few companies. The UK has a growing community of companies developing systems for renewable power generation using tidal, solar and wind energy.
The UK has the fastest-growing market for photovoltaic (PV) solar energy installations.
According to figures from market watcher iSuppli, installations of PV systems in the UK will total 96Megawatts (MW) this year.
In 2009 the figure was just 6MW, so this is a market very definitely on a steep growth curve.
Another area where UK companies are building global reputations is in tidal power generation.
SeaGen, the world's first and most powerful commercial-scale tidal energy turbine, has delivered its two millionth unit of electricity into the UK electricity grid.
Designed and manufactured by Marine Current Turbines (MCT) of Bristol., the 1.2MW unit, located in the mouth of Strangford Lough, delivered its second GWh in five months of 24/7 operation.
It took from July 2008 until March this year to generate the first GWh, largely through licence restrictions imposed while its affect on marine life was assessed.
"It produces 1.2MW for all current velocities higher than 2.4m/s and remains the world's most powerful tidal turbine," said Peter Fraenkel, technical director of) of Marine Current Turbines.
MCT is working with partners to develop a 10MW tidal farm off Anglesey and to deploy a single SeaGen system in Canada's Bay of Fundy.
It has approval to deploy an array of SeaGens between Orkney and mainland Scotland between 2017 and 2020, which is also where the AK-1000 is due to be installed.
SeaGen has twin power units mounted on wing-like extensions either side of a 3m diameter tubular steel column attached to the sea bed.
Another tidal turbine project demonstrates the range of UK-based technologies which are being created in this area.
Atlantis Resources claims to have built the most powerful tidal turbine with blades that are 18m in diameter and can generate 1MW.
Currently waiting in Invergordon, it is due to be installed between Orkney and the mainland on the floor of the Pentland Firth off the Scottish coast.
The turbine housing, or nacelle was fabricated by Soil Marine Dynamics in Newcastle, the gravity base structure and system assembly was completed by Isleburn Engineering in Invergordon, and steel for the turbine came from Corus' Scunthorpe facility.
There is also a growing community of start-ups developing technologies such as contactless gearboxes and innovative types of energy storage media which are adding to the design strength of the renewable sector.
Green-Tide Turbines (G-TT) is another UK start-up which is with Cambridge Consultants to develop its tidal stream turbines.
According Craig Webster, head of Cleantech at Cambridge Consultants “It is important that start-ups have access to this level of technology. All too often, we find that financial restrictions coupled with a need to show hardware to investors encourages them to short circuit this process.”
By 2020 the UK Government has committed to 20% of its total energy requirements coming from renewable sources.
Government initiatives are driving the demand for renewables which is feeding the engineering sector.
According to Dr. Henning Wicht, senior director and principal analyst for iSuppli: “Things definitely are looking brighter for the solar market in the UK in 2010, as the country has adopted attractive Feed-in-Tariffs (FIT) to promote PV adoption.”
“Furthermore, with leading solar country Germany cutting its FITs, the focus of the PV world is shifting to places with more favourable incentives—making the UK a solar hotspot this year,” added Wicht.
It is likely that the renewable sector will be spared the worst of government spending cuts.
Last year the previous government agreed to create a £39.5m investment fund for companies doing R&D in areas such as low-carbon and nano technologies.
According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, a typical household that installs a well-positioned 2.5kW system could save £140 per year on its electricity bill.