Miljøprojekt, 1089 – Miljøteknologiske styrkepositioner

Miljøteknologiske styrkepositioner

Summary and conclusions

Strongholds in environmental technologies
Business framework conditions

Global focus on environmental responsibility has increased interest in new environmental technology solutions, and environmental technologies will see impressive global growth rates in the coming decades.

Environmental technologies make important contributions to solving global environmental challenges. But they are only part of the solution. The development of ground-braking environmental technology solutions should go hand in hand with political decisions on binding environmental goals, public environmental regulation and economic incentives that promote an appropriate behaviour among companies and consumers.

The environmental technology market is a highly competitive market that focuses on utilising new and emerging technologies. A large number of Danish companies are active participants in the global competition.

There are several examples of government institutions taking an active part in the competition. More and more, new environmental technologies are developed in a binding and strategic collaboration involving companies, universities, research laboratories and government authorities.

The level of Danish government authority participation is a critical element. However, this is not the focus of this analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to identify environmental technology areas where Denmark potentially could create new strongholds, if strategic and binding collaboration involving companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities is carried out.

The actual level of co-operation should be decided among the relevant stakeholders.

Strongholds in environmental technologies

The starting point of the analysis is the mapping of environmental technology strongholds in Denmark.

There is no official definition of an environmental company, nor do we have statistical records of Danish environmental industries. For the purpose of the analysis, FORA(Ministry of Economic and Buisness Affairs' unit of business economic research and analysis) has defined environmental companies, and a Danish environmental cluster has been mapped.

A total of 420 environment companies with 60 000 employees have been identified, along with 46 knowledge institutions that focus on environment-efficient technologies. The environment cluster is one of Denmark's largest business clusters.

The cluster may be divided into sub-clusters based on the environmental challenge faced by the company or knowledge institution. A total of eight sub-areas have been identified.

The pilot project has selected three environmental clusters for further analysis; energy/climate, water and chemicals. They constitute three sizable clusters encompassing both high-tech companies and large Danish companies with a strong global competitive power, as well as a range of knowledge institutions that conduct world-class R&D.

Companies and knowledge institutions within the three areas have been asked to what extent they are involved in the development of new environmental technologies, and the analysis also details company expectations for future potentials and possible collaboration partners in meeting the potentials.

The emerging environmental technology areas identified by companies and knowledge institutions are assessed on the b asis of three criteria:

Critical mass – do the number of companies constitute a business stronghold?

Knowledge – how is the quality rated against the world's best?

Potential – does a large global market exist?

Furthermore, it has been assessed whether the development of new environmental technologies presupposes collaboration between companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities.

On that basis, five promising areas have been identified:

Wind energy from mega turbines
Water purification
Industrial biotechnology
Bio fuels
Fuel cells

Wind energy, water purification and industrial biotechnology are founded on well-established businesses that have developed solutions and technologies to support an industry. Bio fuels and fuel cells are spin-offs from established industries, but the technologies remain somewhat under-developed compared to wind, water and industrial biotechnology.

It should be stressed that three of the eight environmental areas have been analysed in this report. We cannot rule out the possibility of business strongholds in areas outside energy/climate, water and chemicals.

Wind energy from mega turbines

It is assessed that the next few years will see the development of high capacity- and highly effective mega turbines that, in time, will replace most of the onshore turbines. It is furthermore the assessment that the next two decades will witness the emergence of competitive offshore turbines that over time will claim a dominant position in the global wind energy market.

By creating an effective Danish wind cluster we believe it is possible to develop a competitive mega turbine and competitive offshore turbines that will allow Denmark to maintain and further develop the stronghold in wind energy.

Water purification

It is our assessment that in the next few years, new solutions for water purification will surface, combining and further developing technologies from various disciplines. This applies both to new combinations of existing purification technologies and combinations of environment-effective technologies in the industrial bio-technology field.

Denmark posses strongholds in both areas; thus the creation of a Danish water cluster will make it possible to develop new, competitive water purification solutions, so that Denmark can maintain and develop the current stronghold.

Industrial biotechnology

Today, a large number of chemicals are used in industry production, thereby imposing a severe strain on the environment. Up till now, the problem has been contained by imposing threshold values for the use of chemicals. It is the assessment that the continued progress in industrial biotechnology will produce organisms with no or only limited environmental impact, that may substitute or lower the use of certain chemicals.

It is also conceivable that the further development of the industrial biotechnology sector will open up new combinations of technologies that may potentially solve environmental issues that up until now have been difficult to address. This may apply to areas such as water purification, soil purification and feed production.

By creating an industrial biotechnology cluster we believe it will be possible to develop new environmental solutions based on technologies with a huge commercial potential.

Bio fuels

Around the world, intensive research is being conducted in developing competitive bio fuels. There is a significant potential in developing bio fuels for cars and for heating.

It is the assessment that a strategic collaboration involving Danish companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities will allow a competitive technology and form the basis for an emerging business stronghold.

Fuel cells

We are witnessing intense research and development efforts in developing competitive fuel cells, and currently we are witnessing the emergence of various technologies targeted at a variety of purposes.

In certain areas such as fuel cells for heating, strategic collaboration involving Danish companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities may lead to the emergence of competitive technologies that will form the basis for a Danish business stronghold.

In addition to the five areas listed above, the analysis has identified a number of areas that could potentially become Danish business strongholds. However, for various reasons these areas have not been highlighted in the analysis:

It may very well be the case that the potential may be realised without a strategic and binding collaborative effort involving government authorities. In other words that the market, the existing working relations between companies and universities, the existing innovation system and the established research programmes are sufficient in supporting the potential of the area in question.

Secondly, the area is not perceived to meet the three requirements mentioned above, due to lack of critical mass, limited knowledge base or lack of a coherent technology that may raise doubts with regard to the commercial aspect of the technology.

The fact that certain technologies fail to meet the three criteria should not refrain companies or knowledge institutions from continuing their technology development within the respective areas. However, the core purpose of the analysis is to identify a limited number of areas where strategic collaboration with government authorities may lead to the emergence of Danish business strongholds.

It is recommended that a consortium involving all relevant parties - companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities - be established within each of the five identified areas. The consortia will assess the commercial aspects and produce dedicated strategies for realising the potential.

It is also recommended that the consortia address the scope of co-operation, carry out competitive analysis and address the competitive environment, as well as invite entrepreneurs and inventors to participate in the efforts.

Business framework conditions

This analysis also addresses companies' assessments of the business framework conditions. The companies have been asked to rate the most important framework conditions conducive to the development of environmental solutions, and have also been asked to assess the quality of existing framework conditions.

Framework conditions fall into eight categories:

Government regulation
The possibilities of testing new technologies
Collaboration between companies and supervisory authorities
Collaboration between companies and public research
The scope and quality of public environmental research
The number and quality of knowledge institutions with focus on the technology in question
Innovation and creativity among entrepreneurs
Collaboration with other companies.

Government regulation and the possibilities of testing new technologies are considered to be the most important framework conditions. This is hardly surprising, but, nonetheless, serves to underline the fact that binding and strategic collaboration involving companies, knowledge institutions and government authorities is indeed critical to the development of environmental technology strongholds.