Going for green!

Chaired by Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng and Skills Minister Gillian Keegan, the Green Jobs Taskforce will, it is reported, focus on the immediate and longer-term challenges of delivering skilled workers for the UK’s transition to net zero including:

1. Ensuring the UK has the immediate skills needed for building back greener, such as in offshore wind and home retrofitting

2. Developing a long-term plan that charts out the skills needed to help deliver a net zero economy

3. Ensuring good quality green jobs and a diverse workforce

4. Supporting workers in high carbon transitioning sectors, like oil and gas, to retrain in new green technologies.

The launch of the taskforce comes swift on the heels of the announcement of £22.5 million of government funding for five state-of-the-art research centres in London, Loughborough and Exeter. The research centres will explore how the reuse of waste materials in the textiles, construction, chemicals, transport, electronics and metal industries can protect the environment and boost the economy.

The third recent development in this hat trick of green wins is the announcement of £134 million of government investment to help some of the UK’s greenest and most innovative businesses. And many of the 1000+ projects that will benefit feature automation and smart technology.

For example, Bristol-based marine company Rovco is developing technology for autonomous underwater inspections of large offshore wind turbines. This will be crucial in assisting human operators carry out effective maintenance of one of the UK’s cleanest, renewable energy sources, which can often be dangerous, while ensuring it is carried out in accordance with social distancing measures.

KegTracker in Pontypridd, Wales, is aiming to reduce the amount of waste in the UK’s brewing industry by using artificial intelligence (AI) to turn kegs into ‘smart containers’ that will provide real time data to accurately monitor the condition and contents of kegs as they travel from brewery to pub and back again. This will help reduce the amount of liquid that is thrown away annually, currently costing the UK an estimated £5 billion a year.

Robotiz3D in Manchester is developing autonomous technology which will enable robots to be deployed to patrol roads and detect and repair cracks and potholes as soon as they appear. This approach will speed up the time taken to make repairs and will lower overall costs, while reducing the carbon footprint caused by road maintenance vehicles.

It is really pleasing to see the vital role that automation is playing in so many of these green projects.