REGIONAL FOCUS
Nottingham, already the most energy self-sufficient city in the country, wants to produce even more of its own power. The city council’s deputy leader,Cllr Graham Chapman, explains why.
N
ottingham City Council wants to build an innovative ‘Energy Park’ on
a 6.75ha site in its north-west suburbs. It would be based, most likely, around a waste- to-energy conversion plant with associated environmental research facilities, but alternative renewable energy generation is also possible.
Councillor Graham Chapman, deputy lead- er of the city council and portfolio holder for resources, economic development and reputation, spoke to PSE about the plans for the Energy Park.
He said: “The context behind this is that we are shifting emphasis from recycling to energy. We are very concerned about future energy supply to the city and energy secu- rity, as well as the cost of the energy supply from extraneous sources – the price of oil is going to go up, for example.
“This is also a way of engaging business better. If you talk to them about recycling, they’re not half as interested as if you talk about their bottom line. The primary rea- son for doing this is that it will probably create more jobs in the long run.”
Nottingham is looking to develop in three sectors. “One is energy supply,” Chapman advises, “we’ve already got an incinerator and we actually are the most energy self- sufficient city in the country, but even that is not very impressive when you compare us with cities abroad. We get 3% of our energy locally, so in UK terms we’re doing ok. That’s mostly thanks to the incinerator, but also the hydro-electric power we have out at Clifton.
“It also fits in with the fact that we’re fitting photo-voltaics to council buildings and to council houses – 600 in the next year or so. We’ve already done very large-scale instal- lation projects.
“The second area we want to emphasise with the Energy Park is research. We’re try- ing to link up with the university, which has got quite a strong research base for energy saving and energy production.
“The third is jobs; using energy sources to attract manufacturing jobs back to the city. “For a city that’s de-industrialised, that’s where the Energy Park comes in; it’s finding
to be able to get planning permission for it. We’ve already done a lot of the regula- tory preparation and site investigation and environmental investigation, so what we’re trying to do is get as up-and-ready as pos- sible. It’s also quite near the M1 and so has good road links as well.”
Energy will be produced from one or more out of: • Wind • Solar
• Geothermal • Energy-from-waste • Pyrolisis • Combustion
• Other technologies
good quality manual jobs that’s important. We think this is a potential source of that.
“We’ve got the piece of land, which was originally for Raleigh to move to when they were re-structuring, but they decided they were going to move slightly out of the city, so in a sense let us down. We’ve still got this piece of land that we want to develop, however.
“We’ve had great success with other busi- ness parks. The idea of designating this one as an ‘Energy Park’ is to attract people to it. We’re looking for a combination of waste- to-energy and opportunities for something innovative; there are a couple of firms around with very innovative approaches to energy production who are quite interested. We also want to link that in with university research.”
Chapman continued: “We also want to provide a reasonable energy supply for the industrial units around it. On that site, there’s also a whacking-great power supply line right through the site – by pure coinci- dence, we only discovered it post-hoc, but that’s something we can tap onto it.
“Finally, it’s next to Rolls Royce’s site who are looking to develop. There’s an opportu- nity there. They’re looking for a combina- tion of industrial and housing, and this is an opportunity to supply the energy to that.
“We expect to throw the land in as part of the deal. The land is worth quite a bit. It’s in the middle of an industrial area and away from houses. It’s not going to be intrusive and therefore we are optimistic we’re going
Another stumbling block could be local allotment holders at the land, who fought against earlier plans for redevelopment of the site. The gardeners who remain have al- ready been issued with a ‘notice to vacate’.
Chapman thinks the best way to help the environment is through pragmatism, not preaching.
He explained: “The whole aim behind this is to reduce carbon emissions, but as a by- product of developing a new source of en- ergy supply. I’m not going out there, with my sandals on, aiming principally to reduce carbon emissions. That’s not the way to do it. People are just not that desperately in- terested, even if they may be wrong not to be interested, in that. But my view is that if we do it this way, we’ll get a far better re- duction than if I went out preaching about carbon emissions.
“The stumbling block is waste supply. We are tied up with our own contract for a while, but will probably be looking for somebody with their own waste stream, although we wouldn’t be averse to, in future contracts, diverting waste. We’ve applied for all the European subsidies and ERDF funding as well as to DECC. We want to brand this piece of land, see what turns up, have some overall view and see what offers come for- ward. We’ll go for the best offer. One of the major deciding factors will be the number of working-class jobs it will create.”
The council hopes to find a development partner, with a new company created spe- cifically to build, mar- ket and operate it, with building work to start in Spring 2013.
The Cabinet will vote on the plans at the end of April.
Visit
www.mynottingham.gov.uk/energypark Graham Chapman
FOR MORE INFORMATION public sector executive Mar/Apr 11 | 27
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