UFOs?! What next...

Dale Vince, CEO of Ecotricity, found another opportunity to self-publicise, following sensationalist headlines hitting the press this morning:

“UFO hits wind turbine”

The Sun

“UFO claim over wind farm damage”

BBC News

“Wind turbine destroyed after ‘octopus UFO’ seen in sky"

The Telegraph

“Inquiry launched into ‘UFO attack’ on turbine”

The Times

This all started after an investigation was launched this morning into how one of the 20 turbines at Ecotricity’s Consiholme wind farm (Fen Farm, total capacity of 16MW, running since 17 April 2008) came to be seriously damaged last night.

This morning the turbine was discovered with one of its blades “missing” (it had not disappeared as speculated by The Sun, but had fallen to the ground) and another seriously damaged.

Apparently locals claim to have seen bright lights in the sky, one witness describing it as "a massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground". Hmmm sounds a bit like a neighboring turbine to me. The moon was bright last night, wasn’t it?

Dale Vince, Ecotricity’s CEO, encouraged the sensationalism, saying on The Today programme this morning: “We haven’t come up with an answer yet, the UFO theory is the best we’ve got”.

Nonetheless, this is not the first time a Wind turbine has suffered damage such as this, in fact sometimes it is far worse… In fact, take the liberty of searching “wind turbine failures” on youtube.com and you will see many amateur videos of wind turbines “self destructing”. Normally the failures are caused by internal mechanical failures (brake failures, gear failures etc) or structural damage. The carbon fibre blades are extremely light and fragile (they need to be in order to generate maximum energy in low winds), if the braking mechanism in the wind turbine that limits the speed of the wind turbine breaks, then there is nothing to stop the blades spinning dangerously out of control and causing damage. (NB This happens very rarely; normally any deterioration would be detected by one of the remote monitoring systems). Or if a blade was suffering from structural fatigue, it could feasibly break away from the nacelle and damage another blade on the way down.

Now, I’m not a mechanical expert by any means and I would never claim to be, but I am tempted to believe that perhaps this mysterious damage to the Fen Farm wind turbine was caused by a mechanical failure rather than a UFO.

But a UFO makes a great bit of publicity, doesn’t it Dale? Well, here you go, this link to your blog is on us: zerocarbonista.com

By Clare Buxton
Wind Energy Sector Lead at EcoSearch

Boost your career in 2009 with LinkedIn

In my post on Looking for a ‘good’ green job I promised to write about using LinkedIn. LinkedIn.com has become the online business network of choice for many. It allows you to create an online profile and make it as visible as you wish. Apart from anything else it is a great place to keep contact details for all the key players in your network. You never know when you might leave that battered old filo-fax in the back of a taxi.

You might be asking “Why do I need a LinkedIn Profile?”

Are you legitimate? - If you call someone with a business proposition, they may well look you up on LinkedIn to find out more about you. It certainly happens a lot here at EcoSearch when we are looking for service providers to partner with.
Take a look at my LinkedIn profile and you will see how long I have been working at EcoSearch, what other experience I have and my educational background, as well as a whole wealth of other information.
Not only does it allow you to be found by those you already know, but people with potential opportunities can find you just by doing a search.

Growing your career – LinkedIn is now widely used by head hunters to identify individuals with the right profile to match senior level opportunities with companies they represent. Whilst being on LinkedIn will not guarantee that you will be approached by a head hunter, it will increase your chances of being noticed by people who can help you to progress your career at the right time for you.

Strengthening a connection - If you meet someone at an industry event or even on the train and they work in your niche, it can be easy to let that meeting be forgotten. Down the line potential opportunities for collaboration can be lost. If however you have a philosophy of connecting to everyone you meet on LinkedIn, you never lose their business card, or forget their name or which company they represent.
LinkedIn is reaching the point where the majority of savvy business people are signed up. There is no excuse for not using it to keep up to date with and to grow your network.

Wider networking - LinkedIn groups (discussion forums about a specific topic) have undergone a lot of change recently. Despite the number of groups you can join being capped at 50; I think most of these changes have been for the better. You can now search for relevant groups, start discussions and share ideas without leaving the site. This is a great way to interact with likeminded folks that you are not connected to. Often these can lead you to an external networking website with previously untapped potential.

Creating your profile

LinkedIn has acquired many more features recently so creating your profile may seem a little more daunting than it would have done six months ago. Let me assure you though, the new features make for a much more useful experience. Having a profile is worth the time investment.
Go along and hit the sign up button, the site is very user friendly and talks you through creating your profile. You can include as much or as little information about yourself as you like.

I would encourage you to think about a few key words that should be included in your profile. Try to include your job title (and any other ways your function might be described) as well as the sector you work in. If somebody is searching for a person like you, what keywords might they type into a search box?

Once you have a profile, start looking for people you know (you will probably be surprised by how many people are already there). Invite them to connect, and watch your network grow. Once you have a small network of contacts, you will have a pool to search and find useful folks that work in your field.

From there you can go on to join groups, ask questions or just network with your new community.

For great information straight from LinkedIn, check out their article Start 2009 Strong with LinkedIn. Let me know how you get on creating your profile and any benefits that come of it.

By Katharine Robinson
Research Associate at EcoSearch

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from EcoSearch

All at EcoSearch would like to wish our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

We are all looking forward bringing you more exciting news, views and snippets from the world of talent in Renewable Energy, Clean Tech and Carbon Management in 2009.

If you would like to keep up to date over the festive period, EcoSearch is now on Twitter. So feel free to follow @EcoSearch and never miss a thing.

The Monster is evolving...

Internet job boards came on the scene in the mid nineties and revolutionised the way we look for a new job.

No longer do we wait for Thursday’s newspaper and head to the opportunities section with our red marker pen, ready to circle whatever looks interesting.

Now I can look for jobs on any day of the week, without even leaving my house to go to the news agent. I could wake up in the middle of the night, wondering what others doing a role like mine are earning and get an approximation in just minutes by switching on my computer.

If I feel tempted, and have my CV ready, I can apply with just a few clicks of my mouse. No need to worry about having nice paper to print on or ink in my printer. I don’t need to buy an envelope or even a stamp.

Searching on the internet for a job allows us to find opportunities in companies that we have not heard of or companies that we might not have thought to send our CV to otherwise. I could even add my CV to a database and then do NOTHING – just wait for the right job to come and find me while I get on with my life.

It sounds pretty nifty to me already. So when Monster says that it’s all about to change, you have to take notice! Monster’s CEO and Chairman, Sal Iannuzzi says that the new website will be almost a 100% rebuild. There will be new features and functionality unique in the industry. Debby Lloyd and I attended a launch breakfast for the new site at Altitude on the 29th floor of the Milbank Tower in London Last Monday. The full extent of the rebuild was confirmed when we were shown just how different the site will look and feel for both candidates and recruiters.

A lot of other job boards have recently gone through overhauls and then spent a lot of money on advertising. I was approached by fish4jobs.com following their re-launch earlier this year. I had, of course, seen their new advertisements on E4 (just before Scrubs) and so was unconsciously aware that something was going on in that world. But was it fish4jobs or totaljobs or could it have been jobsite? It’s really hard to say. I wonder how these other job boards will react to their already much more recognisable competitor coming in and trouncing them all with a career management revolution.

How can it get any better?

Monster has not done anything by half measures. They have spent many millions of dollars on THE BEST search tools that money can buy to analyse their industry leading CV database (I don’t even know if I’m allowed to tell you how many CVs that is). This means they can provide job seekers with information regarding likely future career moves based upon their previous experience, or allow someone to input their career goals to find out what they need to do to get there.

When you go to the homepage of New Monster, it won’t look the same for any two people. New Monster goes beyond the Niche Job Board provision – it is a 100% personal and customisable job board. You see what you tell it you want to see, and the most relevant jobs will find you. I don’t know anywhere else I can get that.

On a more logistical level, the sign up process has been streamlined. It will now only take 50% of the time to create your profile (My Monster) and upload your CV (but only if you want to). This gives job seekers more time to be focusing on their career rather than plodding through the dull sign-up process getting bored and frustrated.

This new stage of evolution will allow the job seeker to not only have control over their job search, but their entire career path. The aim is for you to be able to look at your present experience and compare with others, see possible future career paths and how to effectively take the next steps. You will also come back to the site regularly, just to see that you are still going in the right direction, this might allow you to see an opportunity for faster progression you might otherwise have missed.

I can’t wait to see it working!

New monster goes live on Saturday 10th January 2009.

By Katharine Robinson
Research Associate

The Clean Capital Network

On Monday evening (1st December) I went to The Clean Capital Network in Mayfair, London. The event is a networking event focused on helping growth companies in clean-tech and clean energy achieve successful financing. With 120 people registered it was a busy night full of familiar faces and the odd glass of Champagne – a fantastic evening in short!

There are all sorts of people that attend, from lawyers, R&D engineers, consultants, to investment firms plus the related services. To be blunt on the attendees, there are three distinct groups of people; one group with bright ideas and technologies who require funding, one who are investors seeking potential projects and the third is the service providers to the other two – e.g. legal, research and insurance.

It works on the ‘Dragons Den’ investor pitch format, where you have 5 or 10 minutes to say who you are, what your project is and what you are looking for. Usually investees request between £1 million and £25 million.

Out the interesting people I met, one seemed very switched on – A Managing Director of a small scale hydro project development company in Chile, normally 2 to 20 MW in size. He is a really interesting gentleman who is dedicated to providing South America with reliable and inexpensive energy with an immaculate engineering background. Is there also a tie in with the generation of carbon credits?

The main reason for the service industries, such as EcoSearch, attending is because a large proportion of the evening is dedicated to networking and conversation about the renewable world, what the current developments and trends meaning it is a great opportunity to hear and discuss this market and its upward trend!

The Clean Capital Network runs monthly so I hope to see some of you there In the New Year!

By Steven Rogers
Carbon Markets Sector Lead

Fancy a glass of wine at BWEA Connect?

Debby and I are looking forward to attending the next BWEA Connect evening on Wednesday 10th December at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London.

With over 400 people registered already, it’s going to be a fun (and very busy) evening, hopefully with a festive theme to it! With people from every angle of the Renewable Energy sector - legal, insurance, technical and consultancies - it’s such a great opportunity to find out about what’s new and what’s hot in the Wind Energy sector, and beyond.

Another great reason for going is the venue itself. Last time I was in the ICE’s headquarters, in Great George Street (also at a BWEA event as it happens), I found myself suddenly very self conscious about the fact I was staring at the ceiling, at a wonderful painting illustrating the involvement of Civil Engineers in the First World War. It’s a fantastic building, designed by James Miller and completed in 1913. James Miller was a Scottish Architect, also famously known for many of his buildings in Glasgow, and Scottish railway stations. I wonder if he realised that his building would host events such as a meeting of hundreds of dedicated professionals, committed to helping generate clean energy in the UK and across the world.

If you can find the time (and if there’s still space, register here or check with Alice from BWEA), it’ll be a great way to start the Christmas season! We look forward to seeing you there, don't forget to let us know you are coming via the EcoSearch Facebook page.

By Clare Buxton
Wind Energy Sector Lead

Our Favourites to follow on Twitter for Green News

If you are already using Twitter then this needs no introduction.

If you are new to this fast growing social media phenomenon then I suggest you take a look at signing up. It takes a couple of minutes and appears oddly simple and a little pointless at first. If you keep using it though, its power soon becomes evident.

This was inspired by a fantastic post by Darren Rowse (@problogger) on his twitter tips blog, TwiTip. If you would like to learn more about twitter, this is a great place to get ideas and find out who you should be following.

For those of you looking for interesting green folks to follow, here are few favourites from the EcoSearch office:

1. @BBC _Earth – for all things nature, eco and energy


2. @BigGreenSwitch – Energy saving tips ever day


3. @CEBUX – our very own Clare Buxton brings you wind industry news and interesting updates from the EcoSearch blog


4. @EcoWales – Eco and Green from a Welsh perspective, fed from the Cardiff School of Journalism


5. @Glaci3r - environmental news, reviews, and media


6. @GreatGreen – for green shopping tips


7. @Greenpep – Interesting sites, blog posts and retweets


8. @Greenprofs – for blog posts and news from Green Professionals


9. @Novogreen – blog posts and news articles


10. @UN_ClimateTalks – Get the news straight from the talks taking place 1st – 12th December.

We would be delighted to know who you enjoying following for your fix of green news and views, please make suggestions in the comments.

By Katharine Robinson
@TheSourceress

You may also find interesting:
15 Online News Sources For Renewable Energy and The Carbon Markets