What Makes the West Midlands Great for Low Carbon?
We spoke to industry leaders to find out why they feel Birmingham and the West Midlands is the best place for the green revolution. Watch the video below, or scroll down to read the transcript.
Tyseley Energy Park
Tyseley Energy park represents some of the most innovative and forward-thinking research facilities when it comes to low carbon and net zero. It is a place that brings together transport, heat-and-power focused businesses and offers support and the opportunity to collaborate.
The Energy Park offers two incubation programmes to support SMEs – the Climate Innovation Platform and the Energy Transition Centre Programmes.
UK’s largest hydrogen refuelling station
Tyseley Energy Park is also home to the UK’s largest hydrogen refuelling station. It is a multi-fuel, open access, low and zero carbon fuel refuelling station. The hydrogen production at the facility is powered by a dedicated offshore wind turbine and currently generates up to a ton of hydrogen per day.
Easy access to a low carbon refuelling centre creates opportunities for local companies to turn to green or net zero emission vehicles and develop their own technologies to aid progress towards our net-zero 2041 target.
How WMGC can help you invest in the UK
If you’re looking to invest in the UK, then our sector experts are here to help, free of charge. We can:
- Help you find the right office space
- Supply you with business information gleaned from our expertise in the local low carbon sector
- Investigate funding routes for your company
- Introduce you to our network of business leaders
- Lend a hand with PR and communications
All you need to do to get this aid, as well as any other services we can help with, is get in touch.
Download our investment brochure
Video transcript
Darren Shipard – CarbonTRACK
Birmingham is a catalytic centre of the transition to net zero within the UK.
Matthew Rhodes – Camirus
The West Midlands is a really good place for low carbon businesses to come and invest not only if they are supplying low carbon energy to other people, but also if they are a business who want to restructure themselves.
Evelyn Sleiman – Energy Systems Catapult
A company who may be working in the clean energy space or developing a product or new solution. There’s a host of different resources and facilities available.
Darren Shipard
There’s a rich Center of Excellence competency here in clean tech, which we’re tapping into.
Karen Seehra – Birmingham Energy Institute
There’s such an amazing network and so many innovations taking place.
Amna Bezanty – KEW Technology
It’s got a lot of links. It’s a great location for clients, for visitors, for supply chains.
Karen Seehra
We have the UK’s largest hydrogen refuelling station. We have a waste with biomass plant that is powering the site with renewable power. And we have incubation space where we’re working with SMEs from across the region, helping them develop their low carbon solutions.
David Horsfall – Tyseley Energy Park
You’ve got lots of brilliant energy companies in the region, amazing academic institutions. You’ve also got a really aligned local authority and West Midlands Combined Authority, all of which are looking to make transformational change and help the green sector grow.
Simon Collinson – University of Birmingham
Our university, other universities in the region, are the source of new innovations in this area. So, we have a Tyseley Energy Park at the east end of Birmingham. It’s producing new technologies to enhance recycling, it’s producing technologies to help households reduce their heat loss, but it’s also producing skills and capabilities, so that firms can be more innovative and take the lead on new sustainability and sustainable business models in the future.
Professor Chaminda Pathirage – Brownfield Research and Innovation Centre, Wolverhampton University
Construction industry needs to meet these sustainable and Net Zero targets. It is not going to be business as usual. At the University of Wolverhampton, we are leading the way and showing the industry how they can revolutionize to build buildings greener, advising and supporting businesses in sustainable development and brownfield regeneration area.
Simon Collinson
A number of things are coming next, one of which is a real pressure on firms and organizations generally to be much more sustainable, to reduce their carbon emissions. That gives the region an advantage in an emerging sector that’s going to dominate a lot of places in the globe. And it puts us at the forefront of that activity.
Amna Bezanty
There’s a lot of energy-intensive industries in the region as well that have a need to decarbonize. As a company, working towards well beyond fossil fuels for all types of people in industries, it’s a great location to be because there’s great demand for what we’re looking to provide.
Matthew Rhodes
There is a fantastic market in the West Midlands. So, we’ve got an awful lot of people here, all of whom want to buy low carbon products.
Karen Seehra
It’s all about almost creating a family and this big network of people who can work together, collaborate network and drive that innovation further.
Matthew Rhodes
There’s a major transformation going on. And that’s a really exciting environment. If you’re running a low-carbon business that is supporting that transformation – this is the place to come.