Business News
New alliance will benefit region’s biofuels industry
A NEW partnership has been
formed to help the North-East's
biofuels industry become an international
hub for the sector
and achieve its goal of being
worth £1bn to the regional economy
by 2027.
The North-East Process Industries
Cluster (Nepic) and North-
East Biofuels (NEB) have formed
a £1.7m three-year alliance to
help deliver the region's biofuels
strategy.
The document, launched last
year by regional development
agency One NorthEast (One),
outlines the significant opportunities
for the region's biofuels
cluster, which has the potential
to supply the global market
and attract international investment.
The partnership agreement
has been hailed as a significant
step for the development of the
North-East's biofuels industry -
which has already seen more
than £350m of private investment,
with more planned - only
weeks after it was rocked by the
withdrawal of D1 Oils from
Teesside.
It comes as a further boost to
the launch of the national Renewable
Transport Fuels Obligation
last month, which requires
all fuel companies to replace five
per cent of their annual fossil
fuel sales with biofuels by 2010.
The partnership was also said
to be a crucial move in helping
the region meet the recommendations
of the Stern report into
climate change, which claimed
the market for low carbon energy
products is likely to rise from
£38bn to more than £500bn by
2050.
Ian Williams, One's director of
business and industry, said:
"North-East England has the
potential to be one of the only European
hubs capable of supplying
the global market and attracting
major investment - but
it is still a young industry. We
need strong leadership and expertise
to build the capacity that
will be needed in our production
infrastructure and supply
chains.
"By bringing together the different
strengths and areas of expertise
of Nepic and NEB to deliver
the strategy, the region is in
the strongest possible position to
deliver on the strategy and seize
on this opportunity for our economy."
Dr Stan Higgins, chief executive
of Nepic, said: "The North-
East is recognised across the
world as a leading location for
the process industry and has
first-class infrastructure to support
large scale chemical and
biotechnology processing.
"Biofuels, biorefining and
other activities requiring the
handling of large amounts of material
will always need these
types of facilities. We have these
in abundance on Teesside.
"This collaboration will ensure
we have the capability of supporting
and developing these
new process industries going forward,
as well as creating the supply
chains that these new industries
need."
12:30pm Friday 9th May 2008
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