Region could lead way to low-carbon future

WHEN Tom Riordan became chief executive of Yorkshire Forward four years ago, he brought a vision to transform Yorkshire from Britain's biggest polluter in to a world leader on the environmental stage.

With many of the region's traditional industries either under threat or disappearing altogether, Mr Riordan believed the burgeoning green energy sector could potentially throw a lifeline to Yorkshire's industrial heartlands while placing the region firmly at the forefront of the green revolution.

"I tried to look at what really makes us different and makes us stand out," he said. "We have the heritage – we were the workshop of the world, and we can apply that now to the 21st century technologies.

"We've got the engineering skills. We've got the single-point sources of carbon, like Drax (power station). We caused the problem, and now we can be an example to the world – to the developing world particularly – that you can go from a very carbon-intensive economy to a

low-carbon one."

Fast-forward to 2010, and his far-reaching vision is slowly becoming a

startling reality.

The work his regional development agency is undertaking with Richard Budge's Powerfuel firm has already brought some 160m of European funding to the region, beating off rival bids from around the UK to develop what will be the world's biggest carbon capture and storage clean coal power plant at Hatfield, near Doncaster.

But Mr Riordan's vision goes much further. Yorkshire Forward is now drawing up plans with all the region's major polluters to extend that carbon capture network right across Yorkshire, using a network of pipelines to pump harmful CO2 gases out to sea where they can be safely buried in depleted oil and gas fields.

The scheme has the potential to cut the UK's entire carbon emissions by 10 per cent, while at the same time bringing untold investment and jobs to the region.

"There is no better place in the world to do carbon capture and storage," Mr Riordan said.

"We've got these big carbon sources, and a matter of 30 miles away we've got the redundant gas fields in the North Sea. So it's about putting them together.

"The one project alone we've won the money for (Hatfield) will create 1,000 jobs straight away – it will perhaps create 5,000 jobs. And if we get other projects we're going to get even more.

"It's about industries for the future. We lost some big industries in this region but CCS, together with off-shore wind, I believe are going to be the industries with lots and lots of jobs."

The off-shore wind sector is Mr Riordan's other great success of the year.

The recently-announced wind farm planned off the coast of Hornsea is truly staggering in its scale, measuring the width of England from Hull to Liverpool in diameter and generating as much electricity as Drax, Britain's biggest power station.