Chamber - Cork Chamber of Commerce

INTERNATIONAL tradeRenewable Energy & CleantechOpportunities for Cork CompaniesOn Tuesday 10 May, the Enterprise Europe Network, inassociation with the Embassy of Finland and the FinnishBusiness Club, hosted an information and networkingseminar focusing on opportunities for business innovationco-operation between Ireland and Finland in therenewable energy and cleantech sectors.Keynote speaker was Professor Mari Pantsar-Kallio, NationalProgramme Director of the Finnish Cleantech Cluster inLahti, who outlined the key areas of focus for the FinnishCleantech Cluster. The model for the cluster itself wasbased on the success of NOKIA’s clustering strategyin Finland. The cluster has also established dedicatedinternational networks that unite companies in the sectorin order to strengthen Finland’s offering in internationalmarkets.Dr Valerie Cummins, Director of MERC³ outlined themission of Cork’s Maritime and Energy Research Campusand Commercial Cluster in Ringaskiddy, highlighting theexpertise that the centre has in the areas of wind and waveenergy and the huge opportunity that Ireland currentlyhas to become a leader in exploiting wave energy off ourcoastline.Finally, Dr Andrew Walsh, Managing Director of CelticBioEnergy gave details of the effectiveness of bioenergyplants. He suggested that Ireland cannot be describedas a leader in biogas technology development orimplementation, however, there is a significant opportunityfor Ireland to now obtain best value from experiencesabroad in the development of what will be a key-stone inour renewable energy infrastructure in the future.The Q&A session raised some interesting topics, includingan Irish Navy mission to Finland later this year and a followupevent in Helsinki in the autumn.Companies interested in exploring potential collaborationwith Finland in this sector are asked to contact Katherine(katherine@corkchamber.ie) for further information.Professor Mari Pantsar-Kallio, Finnish Cleantech Cluster; John Mullins, President CorkChamber; Dr Andrew Walsh, Celtic BioEnergy and Dr Valerie Cummins, MERC³.(Photographs: John Sheehan Photography)Ambassador Pertti Majanen, Embassy of Finland; Tom Eklund, Consul Generalof Finland; Jim Murphy, PCMS and Commodore Mark Mellett, FOCNS.James Kiernan, Flogas Ireland Ltd; Tom McCarthy, McCarthy Developments andPio Condon, Cork County Council.Ger McLoughlin, MERC³; Seamus Coghlan, Cork City Council - EconomicDevelopment Office and Michael Rigney, Hugyourhome.ieCHAMBERlink13