Determined that the UK won’t fail once again to exploit the commercial opportunity of its innovations, business leaders in Cambridge are making a concerted effort to raise awareness of the huge market potential of CleanTech.

St John’s Innovation Centre is showcasing six promising UK-based Cleantech companies and five French companies at an ECOLINK workshop on October 20 that aims to investigate how best to support development and drive market acceptance for these technologies.

Four Cambridge CleanTech companies are on parade - Enval, Ecotechnilin (Godmanchester R&D), Green Energy Options and Cambridge Nanotherm.

One of the panelists, William Anthony, marketing director for EcoTechnilin, a natural fibre solution company says that the UK has much to gain from the French experience.

“EcoTechnilin now has a production facility in Northern France. We originally started in Cambridgeshire, creating insulation materials for the construction industry from waste plant materials.

“We then discovered that if we applied heat, pressure and a resin, that the product could be moulded and hardened to create a better solution for internal car parts than injection-moulded plastic or glass fibre.”

However, despite the benefits in cost, performance and resource use, EcoTechnilin found it tough to gain finance to develop its technology and that UK manufacturers were unwilling to alter their supply-chains to accommodate the new material.

“Our major competitor was a French company creating natural fibre mats from flax that was waste from the linen industry. So we bought them out and took our technology to France where it was welcomed with enthusiasm,” Anthony said.

Part of the benefit of a French operation is that EcoTechnilin is able to retrieve 50 per cent of its R & D costs through tax credits, even though research is still done in the UK.

The company is also working with a Belgian partner that supplies a sugar-based bioresin that can replace petroleum resins. This will enable the company to make rigid panels for the construction industry that are 100 per cent biosourced.

EcoTechnilin is confident that market pressures will increase the desirability of its product, which is becoming increasingly cost-efficient as petroleum prices increase and the automotive and other industries come under pressure from environmental legislation.

Panelist David Gill, director of the St John’s Innovation Centre and a member of the Institute of Manufacturing’s technology management team, says CleanTech is disruptive as it provides supply-chain substitutions.

He says: “Given time the market will prefer the cleantech alternatives especially as we approach peak oil and the price of energy becomes a major driver. However in the short term these technology companies need support, whether this is through a simplified taxation process that stimulates R & D investment or legislative pressure that drives market demand.

“ECOLINK creates an opportunity for companies to get profile and pitch to potential investors across the EU. We are keen to encourage entrepreneurs to participate in this initiative as it provides a springboard to a market that is larger and potentially more receptive to clean technologies.”

The workshop is to be facilitated by Hugh Parnell, chair of Cambridge Cleantech, a membership organisation that is set to launch the following morning. The French companies will be staying over to join their English counterparts at the event.

Parnell said: “The East of England cleantech sector has a market value of £12bn and globally £4.3 trillion. We estimate that in Greater Cambridge alone there are 450 companies that are operating in this high opportunity sector. If we get it right we can invigorate a ‘third wave’ of innovation after high tech and biotech that will offer self-sustaining economic activity on a global scale.”

Companies, policy makers and potential investors are all welcome to attend the ECOLINK workshop – October 20 from 2pm – 6.30pm at St John’s Innovation Centre. More information is available on www.stjohns.co.uk

The event is funded by the European Commission and hosted by St John’s Innovation Centre and two French incubators BIC Provence and BIC Le Havre.