Outstanding Wales – part 1 – Globally Responsible Cymru
Marie Francine Poitras
M. Env. - Trade Advisor, Invest Quebec Int'l, Aerospace, Defence and Security
2020 was undoubtedly a very unusual and challenging year for everyone and we’re definitely not out of the woods yet. But amidst all the uncertainty and disruption, I’m happy to reflect on all those fantastic and dynamic Welsh organisations I supported in their efforts to keep businesses going and growing. In this three part series of articles, I will be covering Wales (“Cymru” in Welsh) as a globally responsible nation, as a technology savvy nation, and as a culturally rich and charming country.
“Establishing Wales as a globally responsible nation” is one of the Welsh Government’s three priorities as stated in its international strategy and one way to do it is to showcase its sustainable marine energy generation capabilities.
Before traveling became a thing of the past, I was at Energy 3 in Halifax (Oct. 2019) and Globe 2020 in Vancouver (Feb. 2020) where I could see natural affinities between Wales’ and Canada’s marine energy and cleantech industries. While in Wales in Nov. 2019, I had met with the team at Marine Energy Wales, as well as Mel Lewis from Mainstay Marine and Jason O’Malley from Insite Technical, all based in Pembrokeshire. I was happily surprised to see that after only a few years in business (now 6), Insite already had clients/projects in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. And I was very impressed with how Wales has embraced tidal and wave energy production and working hard on offshore floating wind energy projects, the most impressive being in the Celtic sea.
Still in Nov. 2019, I attended the Canada-UK Energy Summit at Canada House in London where future challenges of energy production were discussed. There, Andy Middleton from Welsh business ECO2 was telling me about their multiple projects to build biomass energy plants, one of them being in Saskatchewan, Alberta.
And just last month, Welsh Government colleagues in Wales coordinated a Digital Canada-Wales Nuclear Mission with Wales Nuclear Forum and their Canadian counterparts, to explore collaboration opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic. An amazing group of 14 Welsh companies and universities took part in this mission, proving that nuclear energy is a big part of Wales’ renewable energy production strategies, not to mention the production of medical isotopes which are in high demand; They were: Bangor University’s Nuclear Futures, Clywd Compounders, C & P Engineering Services, Drone Evolution, Flamgard, Huntingdon Fusion Techniques, Matom, Mona Lifting, Raven Delta Group’s eft Consult, Roberts and Prowse, Rototherm,Swansea University’s ASTUTE, Teddington Engineered Solutions, and Zip Clip.
Finally, I was very interested to hear about Wale’s electrical vehicle batteries innovations and opportunities at Emerging Tech Fest Conference a few weeks ago with speakers from EV Recycling, Tri-Wall and Deregallera.
Leaving its coal mining past behind, Wales has undoubtedly turned to the future with renewable energy and it will need the help of all these organisations on its pathway to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Data Analytics and Insight expert, transforming digital information for Machine Learning and AI
4 年Great article, always encouraging to hear about other Welsh companies successfully working with Canada - we are very early in our journey! I spent the early years of my career working in Nuclear power stations and I do believe it's an important part of #netzero2050 to provide stable base load, with wind (including those elegant turbines off the North Wales coast) and other renewables used for as much of our needs as possible. There is much innovation work to be done - collaboration is always better when you have people from, different perspectives, so may the partnership between Wales and Canada continue!