Thriving Business
North East England is renowned worldwide for its engineering and manufacturing pedigree. Providing real-world ‘test beds’ the industry in the region is fuelling the development of a vibrant international energy sector. Some of the North East’s key attributes lie in the areas of:
- the UK’s bio energy capital
- £1bn of private sector investment in the Tees Valley in the country’s largest biomass power plant and liquid biofuels plants
- Yanmar has installed two engines at the NaREC Clothier Laboratories for the UK development of state-of–the-art bio diesel systems
- The UK’s first demonstration project of a new generation of 100% bio diesel fuelled combined heat and power engines
- leading fuel cells development and deployment
- Teesside has the most extensive existing hydrogen infrastructure in the UK, an ideal feedstock for CPI’s bio and hydrogen fuel development programme
- First lighthouse in the UK lit using a single fuel cell in 2007
- Wind and marine energy testing
- Close proximity to the North Sea also offers tremendous potential for the utilisation of offshore wind and marine renewables
- The massive US energy giant Clipper Windpower has recently agreed to develop a new generation of prototype offshore wind turbines in the region, utilising the world class New and Renewable Energy Centre facilities in Blyth
- Subsea exploration
- Sonhoe Development will invest £2bn into a modern oil processing facility on Teesside with the ability to produce hydrogen
- Energy end-use efficiency
- £4M Energy Resources Excellence programme has enabled the UK’s largest cluster of intensive energy-using industries to achieve sector-leading reductions in carbon emissions, while increasing production
- Energy Saving Trust advice centres in Billingham and Newcastle
- Microgeneration technologies
- ROMAG plc has one of the largest architectural photovoltaics production lines in the world
- novel geothermal technologies, and a leading fuel cells programme, exploiting Teesside’s unique hydrogen storage and 30km distribution system)
- Combating fuel poverty in the UK
- Publci sector organisations
- National Energy Action
- Community Energy Solutions
- eaga
- Energy skills development
- From technician to masters level, including the EPSRC-funded Renewable Energy Flexible Learning CPD/MSc programme, involving all ERNEE members
