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Firms' cutting edge green technology
WE HEAR a lot about 'greentech' businesses and 'green collar' jobs. Well, last Friday I visited two companies right on our doorstep who are in exactly this space.
The first is called Trend. This was my second visit, the first being ten years ago.
They supply and support building management systems in over 50 countries throughout the world and in Britain they have the largest installed system than any other supplier.
What's a building management system? It monitors heating, ventilation, air conditioning and other building services, minimises energy consumption, whilst ensuring that people and infrastructure are working in consistently comfortable temperatures.
The benefits are enormous – energy bills plummet, employees are happy and it has obvious direct environmental benefits. Their systems are in schools, offices, shops and factories and one local authority has seen its energy consumption fall across its estate by some 40 per cent!
Trend's control centre is in Horsham town centre, above Swan Walk, and their factory is in Foundry Lane.
Then I visited Ceres Power.
This is an early stage business, based on a revolutionary technology developed by scientists at Imperial College.
Their product is small scale Combined Heat and Power – CHP. It's based on a fuel cell that uses gas to generate both electricity and heat.
It replaces your household boiler; your gas bill rises a little and your electricity bill plummets, because the spare electricity gets sold back into the grid.
As I say, it's an early stage company. The basic technology is proven and the completed product is going into field trials. All being well the unit will go on the market sometime next year.
Like Trend, Ceres has a manufacturing unit in Foundry Lane. The company employs 100 people with more recruitment under way.
Tackling climate change effectively will need companies like these to be developing cutting edge technologies. It needs passionate entrepreneurs, managers and engineers to turn them into reality.
Government needs to support them by ensuring that the regulations help rather than hinder.
So what else is out there in our area? What other ground-breaking greentech enterprises do we have in the locality?
I'm keen to hear about them, and see how Parliament and the government can smooth their path.
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
