Region losing race for green industry (From The Northern Echo)

Region losing race for green industry

9:40am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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PROOF that the region is losing the race to grab a £6.5bn green industry that promises to create up to 100,000 jobs has been revealed.

The Government yesterday designated Yorkshire and The Humber as Britain’s low carbon economic area for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The announcement paves the way for Humberside to lead the country in developing the skills and supply chain companies needed by the lucrative new industry.

And it puts the area in pole position when the Government decides where to build “clean coal” plants that will trap the CO2 blamed for global warming.

The designation will trigger questions on Teesside, which – along with the Humber, the Thames Gateway and the Firth of Forth – was picked out as an ideal location for the green power stations.

It was pinpointed because of its heavy industry and its proximity to the abandoned oil and gas fields of the North Sea.

Since then, the need for high-quality low-carbon jobs has been starkly illustrated by the mothballing of the Corus plant at Redcar, with the loss of 1,700 posts.

The Northern Echo first revealed late last year that Humberside was winning the race to develop the infrastructure for CCS.

The area has been in talks with ports in Rotterdam and Le Havre to import CO2 to a purpose-built terminal, before piping it underneath the North Sea.

The Carbon Capture and Storage Association told a committee of MPs that the technology could save the Corus steelworks in Scunthorpe, which – like the Redcar plant – faces an uncertain future.

Yesterday, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed Yorkshire’s pole position, pointing to its “supply chain expertise, academic excellence and close proximity to potential storage sites”.

Up to four CCS plants are due to be built by 2015, funded by a £9.5bn levy on electricity suppliers, a measure included in the Energy Bill currently before Parliament The first will be either at Longannet power station, in Fife, or at Kingsnorth, in Kent, with three more to be selected at the end of the year, possibly at one location.

Regional development agency One North East said last night that the Government still acknowledged that the Tees Valley could become a UK centre for CCS.

A spokesman said: “The Tees Valley and wider North- East are already well placed to take advantage of the environmental and economic opportunities this sector presents.”