Prince Andrew is expected to visit the head office of Renewable Energy Systems where managing director, Dr Ian Mays, and his staff will show him round the eco-friendly building that houses a multitude of energy saving technologies, including a wind turbine, solar panels and energy crops.

It opened in 2003 under the umbrella of the Sir Robert McAlpine construction company in Hemel Hempstead and forms the Hemel Hempstead based building firm's showcase wind energy department.

His Royal Highness will also see the disused Ovaltine building, built in 1929 and based on the model of a farm built for Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI, during the visit in his role as the special representative for International Trade and Investment.

Last month Dr Mays, who has worked for McAlpine since leaving university, published a new report on climate change to demonstrate the scale of the issue and underline the need for investment in renewable energy. The Chipperfield engineer, with the first PhD in wind energy, has ceaselessly chased his dream of harnessing the wind to create a clean energy source.

Dr Mays has suggested that wind energy could fuel more than 20% of what we need and has a growing place in the future overall supply of energy.

He told the Gazette on the eve of publication of his survey: "In just 100 years we have used up nearly all the fossil fuel it took 600 million years to create. Yet while supplies diminish demand is ever increasing and if world leaders don't wake up the lights really will go out."