According to the British Embassy, the visit, which will take place in April, will give any companies wishing to do so, the chance to meet with representatives from the British government and several counties near London, and to visit an area of England to see first hand the projects and support on offer. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) will pay for accommodation and transport within the United Kingdom.
UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the UK government’s organisation that helps businesses locate in the UK and grow internationally. Every year, UKTI helps hundreds of firms, from hi-tech start-ups to global industry leaders, discover global growth from a UK base, encouraging them to look to the UK as their global partner of choice.
UKTI’s mission is “to help our clients, both UK companies wishing to expand abroad and foreign companies wanting to establish operations in the UK”. According to UKTI, “visiting the UK in April is synonymous with exploring new opportunities for collaboration and investment in microgeneration”.
The United Kingdom has a binding commitment to generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources before 2015. In 2005, the UK only generated 1.3% of its total energy from renewable sources, which rose to just 2.25% in 2008. Through the “Low Carbon Transition Plan”, the British government has launched the UK Renewable Energy Strategy, which focuses on reaching the 15% target and increasing the use of renewable energy in all sectors.
According to UKTI, the Renewable Energy Strategy focuses on "changing the current system of incentives for renewables (Renewable Obligation Certificates) to optimise the amount of electricity generated using renewables, introducing feed-in tariffs to encourage the uptake of small-scale renewable energy production, accelerating the disappearance of barriers to entry and bottlenecks in the supply chain and infrastructures, and supporting technological development and innovation".
Seamless advice and assistance
In a recent interview with Renewable Energy Magazine, Ivan Lima, Client Relationship Manager for UKTI, gave an example of how his team helps achieve these objectives by supporting companies in the renewables sector. “Sharp wanted to produce photovoltaic panels in the UK and chose their Wrexham factory as the production site,” he explained. “With the help of our investor development network we were able to help Sharp expand their PV module production. We worked in a virtual project team between London, Wrexham and Osaka to ensure that Sharp benefited from seamless advice and assistance”.
The UKTI offers a tailored service from initial enquiry to landing a project in the UK. It provides advice on the UK market, taxation, employment, visas, comparative data with competitor nations and markets to name but a few. More importantly, says Lima, “it can provide unrivalled access to UK Government policy makers, delivery agencies including Regional and Devolved Administrations, as well as sector experts and organisations”.
For additional information on the visit to the UK, please contact: Marianne Carlin, British Embassy (Madrid), +34 917146340, marianne.carlin@fco.gov.uk
To view the interview with Ivan Lima of UKTI, click here:
