LIFE is never dull when you are working for a company at the leading edge of the renewables revolution.
Ask Kevin Drever to describe an average day at work and it soon becomes apparent that the one thing he can bank on is variety.
“It’s never the same,” Kevin said.
“You can be out on site one day and in the office working on a research project the next. There’s a lot of problem-solving involved – and that keeps things interesting.”
The company he works for, Orkney-based Bryan J. Rendall (Electrical) Ltd (BJRE), is expanding thanks to a growing demand for the specialist services it provides for wind, wave and tidal-energy projects.
With its expansion plans backed by a £60,800 funding package from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, it is now seeking to recruit five skilled staff, who will join the current 12-strong workforce.
Kevin, 23, from Kirkwall, was taken on full-time last year after holiday work at BJRE during his three years at Edinburgh’s Napier University.
He took a degree in animal biology, but discovered during his Easter and summer breaks that he enjoyed working in the renewables industry – and that this sector offered better career prospects than his chosen area of study.
“I literally learned the job from the bottom up,” Kevin said.
“When I first went there as a student, I cleaned the workshop and stripped copper cables.
“But as my experience grew, I soon found myself out on site and up at the top of a very large wind turbine, helping the guys with the problem-solving that’s such a big part of the job.”
BJRE is accredited to the highest standards and can offer a complete package of services to wind project developers – handling everything from erecting a turbine to making the connection to the National Grid.
The company has also helped develop a small six-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine in partnership with French company Eoltec.
One of these turbines performed best in a recent nationwide survey by the Energy Saving Trust, generating 22,000 units of electricity in a 12-month period on the Orkney island of North Ronaldsay.
Thanks to the machine’s performance and reliability, it has become a familiar sight outside homes and businesses in Orkney and beyond – with 40 expected to be installed in Orkney alone by the end of the year.
Kevin is part of the installation team, has helped fine-tune the technology and is involved in a project to gain the highest level of accreditation for the turbine under the Micro Generation Certification Scheme developed by DECC, the UK Government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change.
“My job offers a happy medium between office and fieldwork,” Kevin said.
“Both are challenging and make working here interesting and enjoyable.
“The variety keeps you motivated, and it’s good to be working for a company so heavily involved in renewable energy. It’s an industry that’s growing rapidly and it’s quite satisfying to think that I am also doing a little to help the planet.”
BJRE’s other area of expertise is in the new and fast-growing marine renewables sector.
The company works closely with EMEC, the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre, which provides the world’s first at-sea grid-connected test sites for prototype wave and tidal-energy devices.
The machines convert energy harnessed from the marine environment into electricity. Most feed this through seabed cables to onshore electricity sub-stations. BJRE’s primary task is to ensure that the devices are safely and correctly connected to the National Grid.
It is also investing in the specialist equipment needed to join fibre-optic cabling. This will also benefit the development of marine energy technologies because the devices under test at EMEC feed important performance data ashore through fibre-optic cables.
The company’s expertise is expected to be much in demand in the months and years ahead.
Many more wave and tidal prototypes are expected to undergo sea trials at EMEC in the near future and, longer term, there are plans for commercial-scale projects in Orkney waters and the Pentland Firth.
“It is very satisfying to see the company expanding on three fronts,” said Bryan Rendall, who founded BJRE 15 years ago.
“We’re experiencing strong growth in our work with marine renewables and with both small and large-scale wind turbines – something we expect to increase still further as we look to the future.”
In its recruitment drive, the firm is seeking approved electricians, electrical engineers and cable jointers.
“As a relatively small company, we can offer staff a great deal of diversity in their work,” Bryan added.
“It’s an interesting industry and the feedback we get from the team is that they enjoy the fact that no two days are ever the same.”
For more information, visit www.bjre.co.uk