UK’s marine renewables expertise reaches all seven continents

Trade and professional body for marine renewables – RenewableUK – has published a report on the activities of the UK-based companies working in the onshore and offshore wind, wave and tidal energy industries on global scale in 2017.

The new study, dubbed Export Nation, shows that an illustrative sample of 43 British companies exported goods and services to 44 countries in 2017.

These companies struck 445 deals to work on 434 wind, wave and tidal energy projects all over the world – throughout the rest of Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.

The contracts were worth up to £7.5 million each, with some companies earning £20 million overall from their wind and marine energy exports last year, according to RenewableUK.

They range from exporting small onshore wind turbines to providing 80-metre blades and cables for offshore wind farms.

The report also includes the activities related to UK companies ‘exporting expertise’, where they provided consultants to develop wind, wave and tidal energy projects worldwide.

RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Hugh McNeal said: “It’s great to see that UK companies are winning multi-million pound contracts to work on wind and marine energy projects on all seven continents. We are an outward-looking sector, increasingly export-led, securing new deals worldwide.

“The global renewable energy market is now worth over $300 billion a year. Making the most of our international trading opportunities in clean energy will help us to grow British industry and boost the future prosperity of the UK economy.”

The top export destinations for marine energy technologies in 2017, were, in order of importance, Germany, the USA, France , Denmark, China, the Netherlands, Ireland, Taiwan, Belgium and Japan. Other significant destinations included Australia, Singapore and South Korea.

Baroness Fairhead, UK’s Minister of State for the Department for International Trade, said: “This report demonstrates that there is a clear demand for innovative UK energy technology across the world as the renewable energy sector continues to grow.”