Energy

The overall purpose of the Council is to provide strategic guidance and advice to facilitate the development of the energy economy in North East England.  The emphasis in the region is now firmly set on the need to move forward and deliver. The Energy Leadership Council does see the energy industries growing rapidly and will strive to position the region to ensure that it can capitalise on opportunities. By ensuring coordination of energy-based activities the region will become a highly attractive proposition for potential investors.

Working in Partnership

The Energy Leadership Council consists of leading industrialists with academia and government (please see membership section). Investment propositions are being worked up with our research and business partners to develop the energy sector in the region.

The North East: A World Leader in Industry and Innovation

Within the region, the highly productive energy sector is currently estimated to be worth around £900m per year, employing around 8,000 people and creating GVA per employee in excess of £100,000.  In comparison to other sectors, with more employees but lower GVA per employee, it is extremely profitable, and significant levels of growth within the sector are targeted and anticipated.

With a unique industrial development, design and testing capability and linked leading academic expertise in energy disciplines across our universities, opportunities within the region for energy businesses and investors have never been greater or more exciting. 

North East England has deeper roots in energy, science and engineering than any other region in the world. The unique geographical circumstances of two navigable rivers penetrating a major coalfield meant that the first global fossil fuel export industry was already established here by the end of the 16th Century.

Exuberant innovation in energy technologies followed: first harnessing steam power for locomotion (the Stephenson’s), then turbine technology (Charles Parson), then electric light (Sir Joseph Swan), and the world’s first fuel cells (Thomas Bacon).

To this day, innovation in energy technologies is flourishing in North East England, with more than £6bn of investment (either recently-completed or under development) in novel energy projects in the last few years, including:

• establishment of the UK’s first offshore wind farm in 2000, taking advantage of the long-established marine engineering sector in the region (specifically AMEC Wind Energy);
• emergence of County Durham-based Romag Holdings plc as one of the largest producers of architectural photovoltaic (PV) modules in the world, with a current production line capacity of 12MW per annum, which is now funded to expand to 28MW in 2008;
• establishment of TWI Ltd’s Energy & Materials Technology Centre at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Park, consolidating a globally-leading capacity in energy materials engineering;
• novel tidal power systems being brought to market by Tyneside-based SMD Hydrovision (a world leading producer of sub-sea mechanical devices);
• diversification of The Engineering Business beyond an impressive oil and gas portfolio to embrace tidal energy (Stingray), wind turbine access technology (WaterBridge), and a single-lift wind turbine installation system (Merlin);
• market-leadership in grid solutions for wind farms and other distributed generation being established by Hexham-based Econnect; and
• Investment by Norwegian-based oil & gas supplier Seadrill of a new engineering design operation in Blyth, taking advantage of the pool of experienced engineers in the region.