A sustainable world

The Marches LEP is at the forefront of driving the region’s transformation to a clean, green and sustainable economy.

Our work in developing a modern, environmentally-responsible energy strategy for the region sets tough targets for the reduction of emissions, generation and take-up of renewable energy and journey towards the zero carbon world we know we must create to secure a sustainable future.

But it’s also a strategy which lays the foundations for developing a prosperous economy based on creating high-value, high-skilled jobs, a drive to seize opportunities in innovative sectors such as agri-tech and environmental technology, and to develop the region as a national centre of innovation in agriculture and low carbon transition.

Our ten-year plan – supported by the Midlands Energy Hub – will see more than 1,000 new low-carbon jobs created and emissions slashed, whilst half of the region’s electricity will be produced by renewable sources by 2030. We’ll also cut fuel poverty to below ten per cent and develop a national pilot scheme for overcoming disruption to the National Grid.

We’re already making strong progress in this area. New figures show that Shropshire is the top-ranked local authority in the UK for generating power through Anaerobic Digestion (AD), with Herefordshire only just behind.

The Government figures show there are currently more than 60 sites across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin generating 176GWh of electricity from AD per year.

Shropshire is the largest generator of AD energy in the UK, with 36 sites generating 113GWh every year.

Meanwhile Herefordshire is the seventh largest with 20 sites generating 48GWh/annum whilst Telford & Wrekin has five sites generating nearly 14GWh per year.

The Marches also performs well for solar power in the new figures, with Shropshire now boasting almost 7,000 separate solar PV installations, generating 208GWh – the fifth best in the UK. Herefordshire has over 5,200 sites generating 57GWh whilst Telford & Wrekin has 2,592 sites producing 39GWh (94th) – including its own council-run solar farm which generates around 4GWh / annum.

We’ve appointed our own Energy and Net Zero champion in Gordon Coppock to help ensure everything we do is environmentally sustainable and work with groups such as Sustainability West Midlands and Shropshire Climate Action Partnership to embed sustainability into all our programmes and projects.

Building Skills For Work

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