Cable: “commercialisation”
A high-tech manufacturing facility that develops construction products to enable buildings to generate their own power has been opened by business secretary Vince Cable and Wales’ first minister Carwyn Jones.
The pilot facility, based at Baglan Energy Park in Wales, will manufacture steel and glass coated with dye based photovoltaic cells. Once the coated materials are incorporated into existing and new buildings, they effectively turn the building into a mini power station capable of generating all of its energy requirements.
The products from the pilot will later be taken up by the facility’s industrial partners – which include multi-national companies Tata Steel, BASF, Beckers and NSG Pilkington – for large-scale production.
The technology has been developed at SPECIFIC, the Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC), led by Swansea University, one of six IKCs in the UK, backed by £10m funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Technology Strategy Board.
The £20m, five-year project at SPECIFIC has been helped with a further £2m funding from the Welsh government. The potential economic benefits include up to 10,000 new jobs in the supply chain in a market that is estimated to be worth at least £1bn.
Cable said: “This centre will speed up the commercialisation of innovative industrial coatings, creating a whole new manufacturing sector and new business opportunities, not to mention long-term environmental benefits, including turning buildings into sources of power.”
Cable added: “We are committed to investing in high value, high-tech sectors where the UK can gain a competitive advantage and promote economic growth.”
SPECIFIC’s target is to generate a portfolio of products which, by 2020, will contribute to national renewable energy targets.
Kevin Bygate, chief executive of SPECIFIC, said: “We are delighted to be launching this pilot manufacturing facility which will pave the way for rapid commercialisation and the creation of a major UK industry.”
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