Greater Lincolnshire is at the forefront of the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution, creating profitable opportunities for low carbon energy and industrial businesses aligned with ambitious national sustainability goals. The low carbon and energy economy locally is worth £1.2bn per annum, holds exceptional potential offering an unprecedented level of private investment of £60bn over the next fifteen years and has an existing and future asset base for clean energy and water.
The industry covers a diverse mix of energy and heat generation methods, including the offshore wind industry and innovative anaerobic digestor plants, as well as traditional electricity and heat distribution operations. The sector in Greater Lincolnshire and globally is transforming in response to the climate, to new technologies, and to changing consumer preferences.
The Humber Estuary is fundamentally connected with at least 25% of the UK’s energy production, and the south bank of the Humber also lies at the centre of an emerging offshore wind market. It will become the biggest Enterprise Zone in the UK and will position the area as one of the major hubs for the renewables sector.
The area is also home to the UK’s most ambitious Industrial Decarbonisation project, a dynamic Circular Economy cluster, and the country’s leading Offshore Renewables hub – each presenting significant growth potential for companies throughout the supply chain.
To the East, Grimsby is already the largest offshore and maintenance supply base in the UK responsible for managing over 1GW of deployed capacity and on course to hit almost 8GW of installed capacity in offshore wind in the coming years. The Race Bank Extension would double the size of Grimsby's largest off-shore wind farm and achieve a level that would meet the equivalent of London's peak demand, and could place Grimsby responsible for well over a third of the 30GW envisaged for the UK by 2030.
Our region’s ports have recently successfully won a bid to become established as a collective Humber-wide freeport, and now for both the Greater Lincolnshire and Humber & East Yorkshire (HEY) LEPs, plans shift towards meeting priority sector targets in green energy, job creation and retention, and UK supply chain logistics. Aligned to this, the Able Marine Energy Park (AMEP) project will be a bespoke port facility for the Renewable Energy Sector, particularly for Offshore Wind covering an area of over 330 ha and will feature new deep-water quays. It provides an exciting proposal for the burgeoning marine renewable energy sector and a variety of port centric logistics functions.
Meanwhile North Lincolnshire has plans developing for a Green Energy Park as part of the Scunthorpe Town Fund bid. At its core will sit an Energy Recovery Facility, generating up to 95MW of electricity from 380MW of thermal energy. To ensure the greatest possible efficiency, this will sit alongside 10MW of hydrogen storage, 30MW of battery storage, 120 tonnes of steam storage and an ash treatment facility.
The Government recently announced the first ‘electric motorway’ pilot to electrically powered trucks, which will take place on the M180 near Scunthorpe. The Department for Transport awarded £20m of funding through Innovate UK to a Costain-led consortium including Siemens Mobility and Scania. The study forms part of the zero emission road freight trials under the recently announced Transport Decarbonisation Plan. If it gets the go-ahead, these e-lorries could be in the road by 2024.
Low Carbon businesses investing in Greater Lincolnshire can benefit from a highly developed industry ecosystem with the potential to add value whilst reducing costs and risk. The supporting university and cluster organisations provide access to advanced low carbon research and innovation, in specialisations including sustainable power systems, process manufacturing, offshore renewables, and Industry 4.0 technologies.
This knowledge and expertise is further complemented by a growing skilled, highly motivated, technical workforce that leads the UK in key industry classifications, supported by education providers working with businesses to meet their specific skills needs.
We offer our businesses and investors cost-effective sites and properties, potentially with Freeport incentives and large industrial power supplies, and the infrastructure and global connectivity provided by a major port logistics cluster. That’s why Greater Lincolnshire is leading the UK in Low Carbon energy and industry, and why major businesses are investing here.
Click on other stories in this month's edition to find out more about some key Green Energy projects and investments.
