The South West has once again been voted England’s greenest region, not least of all for the efforts Cornwall has made to advance the delivery of renewable energy, especially marine renewable energy. Cornwall’s significant and reliable wave resource makes it the ideal venue for hosting the world’s first testing facility exclusively focused on harnessing wave energy, Wave Hub.

The 8km² Wave Hub or “socket in the sea” provides shared infrastructure for the proving of wave energy devices and consists of an electrical hub on the seabed, 16km off the coast of Cornwall. This hub is in turn linked to the UK’s grid network by a 25km long, 1300 tonne subsea cable operating at 11kV. Linking marine energy devices to the national grid is extremely costly and Wave Hub is attracting great interest due to the fact that devices have a ready made entry point to the grid.

Furthermore, the facility has the environmental monitoring capability, nearby port infrastructure and developed regional supply chain needed to produce marine energy as cost effectively as possible. Wave Hub alleviates one of the major barriers to development as it holds the necessary consents and permits to install 20MW of wave energy devices, without the need for the developers to go through the rigorous consenting process usually required if developers take forward an independent project.

The shared infrastructure and consented sites gives developers a cost effective means to take the final steps towards commercialization, and prove that wave energy is a viable industry.

Wave Hub provides a rich learning environment for education, training and research into renewable energy technologies in the South West. Besides its rich wave resource,Cornwall has developed intellectual assets that make it an ideal place to carry out sea trials. Wave Hub is complemented by The Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE), a centre of excellence based at Plymouth University, which is developing knowledge around resource characterisation and aiding technology transfer for critical elements of marine energy.

Wave Hub has now attracted its first customer, Ocean Power Technologies, which intends to install a 5MW array of its Powerbuoy devices and several other high profile developers are developing proposals to have scale devices installed. With the resources available in Cornwall and the advantages Wave Hub offers, it is only a matter of time before the berths fill up and Cornwall takes its rightful place as a leading region for Wave energy.

The potential for Cornwall’s various resources to catalyse an entirely new industry in the South West of England is vast, as we build on the established skills in the south west, and capitalise on the forward looking attitude of local politicians and an ever greener public.

David Krohn Biography

David Krohn is the Wave and Tidal development manager at RenewableUK. His role comprises of analyzing and influencing policy to create the optimal conditions for marine energy installation. His industry building activities include dissemination of information and best practice flowing from the activities of the sector as well as connecting the various parts of the industry so that they work in a coordinated and coherent way.

Prior to moving to RenewableUK, David studied Environmental law at the University of Cape Town and has worked across a range of energy and sustainability initiatives, primarily through the construction lens. Most recently, he managed a Nuclear Decommissioning Stakeholder Dialogue bringing together government, generators and a range of NGOs to develop best practice guidance for the industry.

Guest Blog from Nigel Ashcroft, Superfast Cornwall Programme Director for Cornwall Development Company

Superfast Cornwall is a pioneering programme to bring superfast broadband to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, making it one of the best connected places in the world.  Funded by the EU, British Telecom (BT) and Cornwall Council, we’ve just completed the first main phase of the rollout programme which has made fibre-optic broadband available to more than 95,000 homes and businesses across Cornwall – more than a third of all premises in the county.  

Superfast fibre broadband will be available to at least 80% of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly by 2014 and we are aiming to bring faster broadband to everyone else through alternative technologies. 

Innovation is right at the heart of the Superfast Cornwall programme.  Cornwall is being used as a test bed for many pioneering  trials and experiments.  It’s exciting stuff and it can take your breath away to step back and look at the sheer breadth of innovation that is happening right now in Cornwall.

For example, Cornwall is hosting the world’s first live multi-operator customer trial of next generation 4G LTE mobile broadband, run by Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale.

This is a landmark trial which highlights the potential of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology for broadband ‘not-spots’. The trial has seen the two companies share their mobile and fixed line technologies to provide wireless broadband to 180 customers living in and around St.Newlyn East in Cornwall. The license has recently been extended by the regulator Ofcom to enable companies to look at the application of 4G LTE in rural areas and the trial will help shape the rollout of any potential future UK commercial service.

Cornwall is also being used as an early test market for the cutting edge Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology.   Trials in St Austell and St Agnes have seen businesses achieve speeds of up to 100 Mbps which are among the fastest in the UK. There are other technology trials underway in Cornwall, including testing superfast broadband through lines directly connected to the telephone exchange.  Again, trials in Cornwall will be used to inform the way these technologies are rolled out across the UK.

Meanwhile, the VConect project is looking at how advanced video conferencing could be brought to communities other than the traditional business setting. This could revolutionise the way everyone can connect to family, friends and colleagues in future, as well as open the doors to exciting developments in telecare and online learning.

Of course, innovation is not only about new technology, it is about discovering new ways of using the technology and adding new kinds of value.

So as well as working with technology companies, we are working with Plymouth University and other higher education institutions. Superfast Cornwall Labs is the name we use for our collaborative activity investigating current technological development, trends and research to push at the frontiers of what is possible through superfast broadband and the value it can bring to the economy.

For example, Cornwall is leading the way in University of the Village, a collaboration between University College Falmouth, BT and higher education institutes in Wales and Surrey. This is exploring the barriers facing rural communities in accessing outreach university education and is inventing new kinds of delivery, powered by superfast broadband.

Another exciting project is University College Falmouth’s Academy for Innovation and Research (AIR) – a fresh thinking collaboration looking at driving innovation in the applications of superfast broadband. AIR is playing a key in developing the Superfast Cornwall Labs community through the hosting of workshops, providing an online platform for the community on the AIR web portal and more recently sponsoring five research feasibility studies with local businesses.

The outcomes of these feasibility studies have included some stunning initiatives such as a service that uses superfast broadband to broadcast real-time animation to handheld devices and a remote virtual reality application for training and safety procedures based on game engine technologies.

In these few words I can only begin to describe the awesome scale and range of innovation happening through the Superfast Cornwall programme. The programme has been the key to unlocking innovation on a quite unprecedented scale in the county. Not only will Cornwall and Isles of Scilly be one of the best connected places in the world, we can currently lay claim to being one of the most innovative places in the world, a great place to do business and a great place to live.

Unlocking the potential of the marine energy sector is no mean feat, and the UK has constantly sought new ways of capturing and utilising the capability of its wave and tidal industry value chain. Once again we are taking the global lead, not just in actual installed capacity, but with progressive policy measures that the country is putting in place to stimulate growth in the sector. With the Renewables Obligation review set to confirm the UK as the best place in the world to install marine energy devices, and the Strategic Environmental Assessment eliminating the last environmental barriers to widespread growth, the supportive Department of Energy and Climate Change has begun to identify concentrations of expertise that can contribute towards a commercially viable marine energy industry.

The first Marine Energy Park was launched on January 23 and has identified the South West of England as a key area for investment and innovation. With leading developers, original equipment manufacturers and installation experts all based in the region, the South West was a logical choice to launch the MEP initiative. Add to that the fantastic facilities available to the area and we are seeing a clustering of capacities and skills unsurpassed in the world.

WaveHub and FabTest, with their pre-consented and grid connected berths, and academic initiatives such as PRIMaRE, are fast removing barriers to progress and providing opportunities to de-risk the various technologies being installed across the South West. With established port and grid infrastructure, the South West is set to play a crucial role in the development of arrays and generate true value in the area, both to communities and investors.

The collaborative approach that the MEP encourages is ideally suited to accelerating the development of the marine industry as it facilitates knowledge sharing and forges links between the different parts of the industry. The support and leadership that the MEP provides is helping to beat a pathway to commercial viability by providing a focal point for the marine energy industry and integrating the excellent resources in the South West. Only through coordinated activities can the industry advance and improve their commercial offering. The MEP provides the perfect vehicle for drawing together the human and institutional resources in the South West to take advantage of the outstanding natural resources the region has to offer.

David Krohn Biography

David Krohn is the Wave and Tidal development manager at RenewableUK. His role comprises of analyzing and influencing policy to create the optimal conditions for marine energy installation. His industry building activities include dissemination of information and best practice flowing from the activities of the sector as well as connecting the various parts of the industry so that they work in a coordinated and coherent way.

Prior to moving to RenewableUK, David studied Environmental law at the University of Cape Town and has worked across a range of energy and sustainability initiatives, primarily through the construction lens. Most recently, he managed a Nuclear Decommissioning Stakeholder Dialogue bringing together government, generators and a range of NGOs to develop best practice guidance for the industry.

Social Media has moved from buzzword to bandwagon to become the mainstream marketing must-have for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Its growth has been meteoric.

There are facts, figures and statistics that show that speed of growth but perhaps the clearest way to see what has happened is by looking at two definitions.

Social Media used to be ‘media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques’ and it has become ‘how people read, discover and share information’.

Businesses are of course more than enthusiastic about the thought of being discovered, read about and shared with others all across the web and so they have embraced this marketing ‘magic bullet’ with both hands.

But there are three problems with social media for most businesses.

They don’t know what is involved, they don’t know what they want to achieve and they have no way of measuring whether they have achieved it or not.

In their rush to keep up, they have left something behind. They have forgotten to ask, ‘What is our strategy?’ Without an appropriate strategy, some businesses have not seen the return on investment that they hoped for.

So rather than beating social media with a stick for failing to deliver on its promise, what I suggest they need is ‘CARAT’.

CARAT is the planning tool that I use for generating an effective strategy for social business. It stands for:

Community
Aims
Resources
Approach
Technology

As you can see, in this system the technology comes last; it ensures that businesses understand the ‘why’ before dealing with the ‘how’.

The first three stages are all about diagnosis. Who do you want to engage with, what do you want to achieve and what resources do you have to make it all happen.

The Community will include your customers, influencers – people or groups who can sway a potential customer’s decisions – and partners, who are your potential allies because they share a common goal or need.

Traditional marketing would call this group the target market but that in itself highlights how social marketing differs. You are not aiming messages at this group; you are planning to become engaged with them, to share knowledge and opinions and to have that input passed on, referred and commented on.

Your Aims might include improved search listings, increased brand awareness, a better reputation or new sales leads.

One thing that your aims must include is some element of research. Social Media is not a space for talking to people, it’s somewhere to talk with them and as in so many conversations, you should spend more time listening than talking.

The Aims of the strategy should be specific, measurable and be given a defined timescale. (Just like in the old days.)

Under Resources, you would file the time and money that can be dedicated to the activity and the people and skills that your business already contains that can be utilised in the project.

All too often, businesses under-resource their Social Media strategy; generating content, managing relationships and responding to the community that you establish takes a commitment of time and effort.

The Approach is your guiding policy, the overall concept that you are working with.

The approach needs to be visible; people need to be able to see and understand what you are about. It needs to be credible. It needs to have value from the customer’s point of view and you need to know that you are capable of dealing with any responses.

The approach has strong links with traditional marketing, as this is where your brand and its values are represented. There seems to be a belief that Social Media should be fun and funky; however, if those two words don’t appear in how you would describe your business, then they shouldn’t reflect how you behave in the Social Media environment.

Finally, we come to Technology. There are a host of Social Media platforms to choose from and not all of them will be necessary or even appropriate. The diagnosis section of the CARAT process will lead you to see which are the ones to use.

What is necessary however is to understand how your social business activity can be embedded into your existing processes; to see what needs to be outsourced and what can be done by existing staff, and what needs to be done to empower those people to successfully represent your business in the Social Media environment.

Integrating Social Media into your marketing plan certainly takes an understanding of the technology but an understanding of people and how they behave is equally important.

For it to be effective, everyone in your business needs to be involved, want to be involved and know how best to do that. To achieve that, you need a strategy that is easy to understand and to share.

In my experience, CARAT produces something that motivates your people as well as your business growth.

Cloud computing may seem like a new concept for many, but the reality is that it has been around for a long time.  The beginnings of cloud computing came about from a time when many people in IT (me included) sketched network diagrams that included a “cloud” to represent the internet or an external network that we did not know or were not concerned with the detail of or simply did not need to describe in a basic diagram.  This, over the years, has evolved into something which we now refer to as “cloud computing” because the software, hardware and services that we refer to exist in this “cloud” which most are not concerned with the detail of or how it actually works.

The applications that have matured and are commonly used by small businesses are email, file storage and sharing, backup, voice communication, CRM, project management with more becoming available and reliable as time goes by.

The two big advantages to using the cloud are cost saving and flexibility.

In our case, we run a small agency with just a few members of staff.  Historically, we used to have our email server, file server and backup all in house.  The approximate cost of the hardware and software alone for this simple server setup was over £4,000, not to mention the cost of maintaining and keeping it up to date which stretched to hundreds of pounds a year.

We have now moved fully over to the cloud and have significantly reduced our costs, but with the added benefit of increasing the flexibility of where we work and when we work.

Our setup now orbits around Google Apps, a service which is costs only about £35 per user per year!

With Google Apps (one of many cloud based services), we can now access our files, email, calendar, contacts and notes anywhere in the world from almost any device.  We’re a bit more geeky than most organisations so we tend to have more toys (sorry, “business tools”) than most.  But to give you an idea, we can send and receive email from our phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and anybody else’s computer that we choose in addition to viewing files and collaborating on projects and keep our calendar up to date.

Sharing files with clients and partners is now much easier with services such as Dropbox.  Occasionally we need to share big files, we just simply drop them into a folder on one of our computers and the file is then sent up into the cloud and can be accessed by the people we need to access it (be it one person or the whole world).

We work in a rural county and it’s not practical for us all to be together all of the time and therefore we use software such as Basecamp or Zoho to collaborate on projects.  Here we can exchange textual content or images and other files in a team environment.

People worry about the security of cloud computing.  We have never found that this is an issue, but we do use a local cloud based backup service called DATA-FRAME that keeps a regular backup of all of our data for that extra “belts and braces” approach.  Don’t be sloppy with your security, make sure that you control access to your data and change your passwords regularly and make sure they’re not easy to guess or easy to crack.

The final link in the chain for us is the flexibility that we enjoy with our telephone system.  All calls to and from Niddocks travel via the internet using a technology called VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol).  This means that our phones can be anywhere in the world where there’s an internet connection.  If we need to (although we don’t tend to), we can even run the phone through a laptop or via an internet connection on one of our mobile devices.  Services such as Skype are widely used too, especially when there is a need to use video conferencing, but you could use any number of “cloud based” services now to do this.

Moving to the cloud is easier than you think, get rid of that ageing hardware that is gathering dust and getting in the way and replace it with cloud services.

New start-ups and relocators can really benefit from the cloud as the set up costs are minimal with no capital investment required in expensive hardware and software, just sign up and get going.

You’ll probably find that you’re already using the cloud without knowing it but if not, then think about what savings you can make and what flexibility and freedom you could enjoy by using the cloud.

Speak to a local IT provider for more information, these are the best people to help you make the most of cloud computing.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but this lunch will cost you less and you’ll get more on your plate for your money!

Cornwall Council Leader Alec Robertson said, “The creation of an Enterprise Zone at the Newquay Cornwall Airport site is important for the whole Cornish economy and will not only bring much needed higher value-adding jobs to an existing Brownfield site, but will also help to safeguard the airport as an important strategic business location”.

About the Enterprise Zone

The Newquay Aerohub Enterprise Zone will incorporate new aerospace and aviation facilities, including an aviation skills academy, and is projected to generate more than 700 high-value, permanent jobs by 2015. The new developments, arranged over two areas, are hoped to encourage private sector investment in the aerospace sector, which will benefit Cornwall, the Scilly Isles and the whole South West region.

The Aerohub is the only enterprise zone in the UK that is dedicated to the aerospace sector. Chris Ridgers, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration announced, “This is very good news for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. This area is one of the largest development sites in the South West, with the Newquay Aerohub Enterprise Zone potentially delivering over 700 jobs in direct aerospace and a further 375 in the wider economy over the next five years.”

 Aerospace Hub in Cornwall

The Aerohub will present a unique environment for aerospace activities, with one of the UK’s longest runways (2,744m), the ability to support aircraft of any size or specification, uncongested skies, access to restricted airspace, and Air Traffic Control Systems. The site also enables direct access to a broad marine environment for Search and Rescue (SAR) training, and is next door to an operational military base.

The Managing Director of Newquay Cornwall Airport, Al Titterington commented that, “The Newquay Aerohub will enhance our already strong aerospace offering. A number of the major aerospace companies we are currently in discussions with have said that the Aerohub would add significant value to their proposals for creating activity at the airport and the high value jobs this would bring to Cornwall. This really is great news”.

Development Opportunities in the Zone

Aerohub is one of the South West region’s biggest development opportunities, offering over 325 hectares of land for development in two identified development areas at Newquay Cornwall Airport:  a direct aerospace development, covering 23.3 hectares, and a business park covering 70 hectares.

The direct aerospace development offers large areas of hardstanding and hangers and has direct access to the runway, and the business park will facilitate the aerospace cluster, with potential to accommodate 100,000 sq m of business space.

The Aerohub received approval for a Local Development Order (LDO), making it a planning free environment. The LDO permits the development of over 100,000 sq m of buildings without needing planning permission from the local planning authority, simplifying the development process and easing investment risk.

The development of an Aviation Learning Centre, a joint venture between the Airport, Newquay for Excellence Training (NfET), and Lufthansa Resource Technical Training (LRTT), is offering aviation entry and maintenance qualifications.

Incentives and Benefits for Investors

Approval of the Aerohub Enterprise Zone plans has enabled government funds, which are being channelled into various support schemes and incentives to attract and support new businesses in the zone.

LEP Chairman, Chris Pomfret, said, “This funding will enable us to support business growth and create new jobs and means that we are off to a very good start in creating a new and exciting economic future for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly”.

Residents of the zone will benefit from the Convergence ERDF Programme, training and development funding, and inward investment and business support. Financial incentives include tax and business rate discounts of up to 100%, and enhanced capital allowances, with discounts available for up to five years to companies that enter the Zone before April 2015.

All businesses need to take risks to succeed, but at EGS Energy we make sure that they are quantified, deliberate decisions.

Having won top position in the DECC Deep Geothermal Challenge Fund with our bid to develop a power plant at the Eden Project in Cornwall – one of the UK’s two geothermal plants, we are determined to prove that our Cornish based company can deliver world leading renewable energy development.

To back their vision the other directors of EGS Energy and I have so far raised more than £3 million for the power plant’s development. My advice for others raising funding is this:

Know your audience, and look strategically for new investors. My starting point is to make sure the fundamentals of any proposal match the interests of the private equity fund being approached.

You need to be ready to react to interest from unexpected sources but for us the focus from the start has been industry investors. It’s about working with companies that understand quickly what’s involved. It’s about building the future we want with our investors – in terms of scale, profitability, reputation and geographic footprint. Having said that, we haven’t yet completed the financial consortium for the Cornwall based power plant and so this is work in progress.

Pay good attention to your financial model. With the renewable energy sector increasingly under the spotlight the need to avoid complacency and make sure you’re putting your best financial foot forward is vital. With so much of the return on renewable energy based on public subsidy, all projects will be under intense scrutiny from investors and DECC alike.

Investors are also keen to see what master investor Warren Buffett calls having ‘skin in the game’ – the fact is that investors prefer businesses where the directors have a personal stake in the enterprise.

So what’s next? Yes, the overall economic climate is a distraction from the renewable sector but getting in place unambiguous legislative and financial support will bring jobs and wealth creation, energy security and help the country meet its 2020 targets.

Supporting this renewable energy mantra with every step, Cornwall is busy playing to its natural resources of solar, geothermal, wind and marine power. For instance the county is making moves to ensure it’s well placed to capitalise on national strategies like the government’s commitment to the future development of Marine Energy Parks.

In solar, with changes to the Feed in Tariff in early 2011 bringing a set back to large scale projects, that still doesn’t change Cornwall’s ideal geographic position for generating solar power. Of course this kind of change to policy temporarily effects investor confidence but as the market continues to mature and as economies of scale are reached other solar opportunities are presenting themselves to enterprising entrepreneurs.  

Daring to be different had always been a hallmark of Cornwall’s rich engineering heritage – as well as the catalyst for truly excellent innovation. Cornwall may be a small region of the country but it’s beginning to make a big impact across the renewable energy sector.

I will be talking further about EGS Energy’s experience in raising funding for their Cornwall-based power plant at the Envirotech & Clean Energy Investor Summit in London (9 November).  I will cover the challenges and pitfalls in getting this power plant project off the ground, as well as the broader opportunities in Cornwall for new projects, new entrants to the market, and growth in the region – more information here 

- What are your thoughts on attracting investment to renewable energy projects? Add your thoughts in this forum discussion.

- See our video which explains the future for the geothermal plant at the Eden Project in Cornwall.