Yorkshire at heart of green energy revolution

As well as adding to the potential green jobs boom, Real Ventures’ Reality Energy Centre on Queen Elizabeth Dock, which would burn virgin wood from harvested timber, would provide enough “green” electricity to power 95,000 homes – a third of the size of Hull – and cut carbon emissions by 190,000 tonnes a year.

It is mirrored by an identical scheme planned for Immingham, and the announcement comes just days after national planning body, the Infrastructure Planning Commission, accepted an application from Able UK to build Europe’s largest offshore wind park on the south bank of the Humber – a £450m development which alone would create more than 4,000 jobs.

And in the spring planning applications will be considered for the proposed Green Port Hull development, which would see Europe’s largest engineering company, Siemens, create a £210m facility on Alexandra Dock to assemble and manufacture offshore wind turbines, employing 700 skilled engineering workers and potentially supporting thousands of other jobs in associated industries.

Last October Hull Council’s planning committee gave the go-ahead for Energy Works, a £150m renewable energy power plant on the east bank of the River Hull. The development by Hull-based Spencer Group would convert household waste into green energy and would be the first facility of its kind in the UK.

The latest biomass project has been widely welcomed.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said: “Yorkshire has, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, always been at the heart of Britain’s energy economy, and I’m not surprised to find that the same thing is happening again today.

“People understand in this part of the world that we have got to have energy, and we’ve got to produce it in an economic way – and that’s exactly what’s happening.

“Biomass is a very important part of what we are doing on the renewable strategy, but obviously what we do have to do is make sure the biomass we are using is sustainably sourced.”

Steven Bayes, Hull Council portfolio holder for economic regeneration and employment, said: “The proposed investment by Real Ventures further reinforces Hull’s position at the forefront of the low carbon economy. Hull is rapidly developing as both an offshore and green energy hub and we will offer all assistance to try to make this project a reality to the mutual advantage of the company and the Hull city region.”

Associated British Ports is working with Real Ventures and Siemens to deliver both dock developments.

Matt Jukes, ABP port director for Hull and Goole, said: “As energy in the UK is generated on an increasingly renewable basis, the port and city of Hull are already well positioned to take a leading role in this green revolution with the exciting Green Port Hull development.

“The Reality Energy Centre is another welcome renewable energy project that fits well with this vision and we look forward to working with Real Ventures over the coming months.”

Under plans revealed yesterday, forest “residue” would be processed into pellets and shipped directly to the plant, which would need about 700 tonnes a day.

Real Ventures chief executive Ray Tucker said: “There are significant reserves of fuel from sustainable sources. The European Environment Agency has estimated that 100 million tonnes of forestry residues alone are sustainably available for biomass fuel every year in the EU alone.

“These residues are currently largely wasted, producing greenhouse gases as they are left to decompose on the forest floor.”

The Hull biomass plant, which could be operational by 2015, would create up to 250 construction jobs and 35 permanent posts.

UK ‘comes first’ approach adopted

THE Humber Local Enterprise Partnership will become the lead contact for co-ordinating inward investment across the sub-region after signing a memorandum of understanding with UK Trade and Investment.

The Government body, which works with UK-based businesses to ensure their success in international markets, said it would be adopting a “UK first” approach.

Martin Phelan, director of investment at UKTI, said: “The Hull and Humber area with its enterprise zones, port facilities and existing industry strengths, makes a great contribution to the UK’s inward investment offer.”