Weak pound provides fair wind for UK small turbine sector

It may be causing headaches for wind farm developers reliant on importing turbines from Denmark and Germany, but the weak pound is offering a silver lining to the UK renewables industry in the form of increased exports for manufacturers of small-scale turbines.

According to new figures from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), the weakened pound contributed to a doubling of export revenues for UK manufacturers of small and micro-wind turbines last year to around £5.5m.

The figures show that 17 UK firms, including Proven Energy, Iskra, Marlec, Ampair and FuturEnergy, have exported over 10,000 small and micro-scale turbines since 2005.

Alex Murley, small systems manager at the BWEA, said that as well as continued success in the micro-wind turbine sector, UK manufacturers had stepped up exports of small wind turbines in the past year, partly as a result of the relatively low value of the pound.

"UK small wind system manufacturers have consistently shown that they can compete in world markets," he said. "What we need now is action to increase deployment in the UK."

Figures from the BWEA suggest that while small wind systems in the UK account for over 20MW of installed capacity there is potential to deliver 1.3GW of capacity by 2020.

"History has shown us that countries like Spain, Denmark, and Germany have vibrant large wind turbine manufacturing industries, because their respective governments supported indigenous markets at an early stage," said Murley.

"If sufficiently supported now, the emerging UK small wind industry could supply rapidly expanding world markets for decades to come, delivering UK-based jobs, environmental and lucrative economic benefits."

The government is currently putting finishing touches to plans for a feed-in tariff due to be introduced next year and is expected to provide households and businesses with small wind turbines with the opportunity to sell the energy they generate to the grid at above market rates.

In related news, clean tech investor Low Carbon Accelerator has announced that it has invested £500,000 in Scotland-based Proven Energy, increasing its stake in the company to 49.83 per cent. The additional funding is expected to be used to finance new product development and senior management team expansion.