A £1.14m grant programme to help develop low carbon local energy schemes across the Midlands will be managed by Nottingham City Council, supported by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership.
The grant will be used to establish a ‘Midlands Energy Hub’, serving the region’s nine Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas and their member local authorities. The programme is part of the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, and will allow identification and development of local energy projects.
Clean growth means growing our local economy and creating an affordable energy supply for businesses and consumers while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The energy market in the UK is changing fast and local areas can have much more control as to how and where their energy is produced. Green energy options are rapidly increasing and becoming cheaper and technological advancement means that our buildings can be much more energy efficient, reducing the amount of energy needed.
Nottingham City Council will host the Midlands hub, recruiting and managing an Energy Projects Manager and eight Senior Energy Project Officers with low carbon and energy specialisms, to work across the Midlands. The managers and senior officers will each be located in and work closely with the nine LEP areas in the Midlands.
Recently crowned as the UK’s smartest city for energy, Nottingham City Council has immense experience of adopting innovations, such as solar powered car parks and battery storage, to improve the energy efficiency of its 300+ operational sites and 1,000+ investment portfolio. The council will bring invaluable experience to the Midlands hub, supporting areas with their energy challenges and opportunities and sharing best practice. The hub will encourage and enable collaboration across the Midlands from all parties to accelerate and strengthen the local low carbon economy.
The roles will focus on identifying and developing energy projects in each local area to enable them to take part in and benefit from the energy revolution, increasing energy security locally and lowering energy bills. The team will also seek to bring in further funding streams to the Midlands to enable additional projects.
Councillor Dave Liversidge, Portfolio Holder for Energy and Sustainability at Nottingham City Council, said: “This Midlands Hub has the potential to make a really positive impact across the Midlands. Creating a sustainable energy future is something that no one area can do in isolation – the ability to develop joint projects and share ideas will benefit us all.
“A thriving low carbon sector will also create more opportunities for local supply chains, creating further job opportunities. I’m really proud that Nottingham has been chosen as the host city for this programme and we look forward to working on this new initiative.”
The council will begin recruiting for the roles in May.
The nine LEPS areas are
- Coventry & Warwickshire LEP
- D2N2
- Greater Lincs LEP
- Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP
- Black Country LEP
- Marches LEP
- Worcestershire LEP
- Stoke & Staffs LEP
- Leicester & Leics LEP