Great advice to businesses at Humber renewables conference

Very good advice from Sam Pick of the Renewables Network to companies looking to do business in the renewable energy sectors at the Renewing the Humber conference at the KC Stadium. Sam described doing business in renewables as like bricklaying. Companies should start small and build their business steadily, brick by brick. He also stressed how vital it is that businesses do their preparation and planning before leaping in. Companies should ask where is the contract they can win to get a foothold. Also, I couldn't agree more with Sam's call for the Humber to work together and stay together. Turf wars will only undermine our potential to become the UK's renewable energy capital.

I've launched my new website - please take a look

I’m delighted to announce the launch of my new website, built by those clever people at Bluestorm, and invite you to take a look at it.

As well as being a shop window for my media and communications services, the site will carry my blogs on the business scene in Hull, East Riding and the Humber region. It will also showcase business-related stories from across the region and informed opinions on business issues.

There is also a channel of news, views, reports and trends from social media - the fastest growing area of communications.

I hope connections will find it a useful information source.

Meehan Media & Comms

Humber estuary can be 'Silicon Valley of green energy'

It’s a startling future vision for the Humber estuary - the Silicon Valley of green energy, leading the world in sustainable power generation.

It may seem far-fetched now, with the much-vaunted plans by Siemens for a plant building offshore wind turbines still to pass through planning and be finally confirmed, but one industry leader is in no doubt about the Humber’s place in what he calls a “CO2-free economy”.

Dr Eddie O’Connor (pictured) is Chief Executive and Founder of Mainstream Renewable Power, a company working in partnership with Siemens in the SMart Wind consortium developing the Hornsea offshore wind field, one of three huge North Sea turbine clusters within a few hours “steaming time” of the Humber.

He’s also Secretary of the European Wind Energy Association and a leading voice in the renewables field. Last week he was in Hull to talk about his vision of how offshore wind will “change the world” as “the fossil fuels era comes to an end”.

I’ve heard many speakers hail the economic potential of renewable energy for the Humber. Typically, the impact of offshore wind is predicted to be similar to that of the discovery of North Sea oil to Aberdeen. But Dr O’Connor’s assessment went much further. He described an economic powerhouse spanning both banks of the Humber, leading the transformation to sustainable energy for Britain, Europe and then the world.

His vision is based on the commitment of the UK and other nations to develop green power sources for environmental and energy security reasons. That, he says, presents a huge opportunity for the UK as an island nation with the natural resource of wind in “super-abundance”.

In a presentation to a conference at the University of Hull, Dr O’Connor predicted huge investment across Europe during “two generations of transformation to a sustainable future” in which offshore wind will be the “backbone and centrepiece” of European energy generation. He sees the Humber at the heart of that investment because of its proximity to three of the largest offshore wind fields.

The Humber ports are already Britain’s busiest docks complex, but Dr O’Connor described even more activity along the estuary, with two new ports focused on the offshore wind industry - Green Port Hull at Alexandra Dock in Hull, where Siemens will operate, and the Able Humber Port site on the south bank. He says six different types of vessels will operate out of the estuary in construction, operation and maintenance of the turbines.

He also foresees makers of turbines, towers, blades, foundations and cables all congregating around the Humber. “All of this will probably happen around the super-cluster that is being constructed as we speak on the Humber estuary,” Dr O’Connor told the New Energy Workforce conference.

The drive for a low-carbon future is underway across the continent, but the focus will be on the UK, he says. He estimates that up to 20 offshore turbines a day will need to be built over 40 years to meet Europe’s renewable energy needs - a significant proportion of them in UK waters. “That is good for the environment and very good for this country,” says Dr O’Connor. He predicts the UK will export excess electricity from wind power to the continent. “We will be supplying electricity for export many times the demand in the UK,” he says.

Until now Germany and Denmark have been the leaders in offshore wind, but Dr O’Connor believes Britain will soon take the mantle, with a resultant jobs bonanza. Based on the German experience, he predicts up to 150,000 jobs from offshore wind developments around the UK by 2020.

It will take decades for the UK and Europe to move to predominantly low-carbon energy generation and, even beyond then, Dr O’Connor says the UK can use its expertise to help the new economic super-powers such as China and India to adopt renewable energy.

Offshore wind has its critics - some say it is too expensive and the turbines don’t work when the wind doesn’t blow - but Dr O’Connor’s case is made more persuasive by the announcement the day after the conference that two of the “big six” energy companies have pulled out of plans to develop nuclear power plants in Britain.

E.ON and RWE npower scrapped their plans in the wake of concerns over nuclear safety following last year’s Japanese tsunami. The decision threw the British Government’s energy policy into disarray, but made it even more certain that wind power would be required to make a huge contribution to the country’s renewable energy needs.

Dr O’Connor says the issue of inactive turbines will be resolved by the development of a “super grid” connecting the wind fields and ensuring continuity of energy generation across a giant network of thousands of turbines. “The wind is always blowing somewhere,” he says. “It may be locally variable but it is globally plentiful”.

Dr O’Connor’s vision helped to set the conference in the context of the economic opportunity for the Humber. Other speakers highlighted a number of challenges in fulfilling the potential of renewable energy, foremost among them a predicted shortfall in engineers. Martin Hottass, Head of Skills for Siemens UK, said Britain needed almost 100,000 new engineers by 2016 as one in three reach retirement age.

All the speakers agreed it was a major priority to help schools, colleges and universities to encourage young people into engineering. Mr Hottass talked of Siemens’ commitment to working with educational establishments and training providers to encourage young  people to choose a career “in a really exciting sector with loads of opportunity”.

It was a message heard loud and clear. University of Hull Vice Chancellor Professor Calie Pistorius said the university had a range of courses and programmes focused on renewables and the low-carbon economy.  It was committed to building “a workforce that is low-carbon aware and has the right specific skills,” he pledged.

Certainly there is now a concerted focus across the Humber to equip local workers with the skills to gain employment and build careers in the offshore wind and wider renewable energy industries.

But will Dr O’Connor’s vision of the Humber at the heart of an offshore wind bonanza become reality? He is clearly an evangelist for offshore wind and his forecasts may be at the most optimistic end of the range, but even if the impact is half of what he predicts, the effects will be truly transformational and be felt for decades.

“Why can’t the Humber become the Silicon Valley of the energy of the future?”, asked Dr O’Connor. Why not indeed. And what a thrilling, unprecedented opportunity to transform the fortunes and long-term prospects of a region where unemployment is stubbornly high.

• The New Energy Workforce conference at the University of Hull was staged by Humber Chemical Focus and the university’s Centre for Adaptive Science and Sustainability.

Humber Chemical Focus

Centre for Adaptive Science and Sustainability at the University of Hull

Dr Eddie O’Connor blogs on offshore wind and renewable energy issues at http://eddie.mainstreamrp.com/

'Lightning-fast' broadband and knowledge jobs bring Hull's digital city dream closer to reality

Hull - the digital city. It’s a concept that has been talked about for years without ever seeming to move significantly closer to reality, but maybe that is finally about to change.

Recently, I’ve detected some very exciting digital developments which could be profoundly important for the prosperity of the city and wider region, transforming employment opportunities and the economic landscape. All the talk at business meetings may be about Siemens and renewables, but something else is stirring which some have claimed may be just as significant.

The digital city concept had at its core the presence of a unique, local telecoms provider in KC and the availability of a network ripe for development to provide the infrastructure - or so-called plumbing - for major developments in education and business.

That concept gained credibility from the late 1990s as a result of the launch and development of Kingston Interactive Television (KIT), KC’s ground-breaking internet television service delivering video on demand and TV streaming via broadband. It was a truly pioneering service which was hugely ambitious in both its technology and objectives. In truth, it was way ahead of its time.

KIT was wound up in 2006 because KC could no longer justify a huge investment, which had come too early for commercial viability. But it had some significant outcomes, including that it was a key reason why the BBC chose Hull as the base for a major regional centre and it was used by the corporation as the testbed for a number of innovative interactive services, which informed later developments such as Freeview.

Now KC is again leading the way in developing digital infrastructure. This time, the company has embarked upon on a programme to install “lightning-fast” broadband across its East Yorkshire network. It’s early days, but the new service, KC LIghtstream, is delivering remarkable results and winning customers fast.

After relatively small-scale trials in Woodmansey, near Beverley, and Hull’s Great Thornton Street Estate, KC has begun a major rollout, starting in Beverley, and now has more than 800 subscribers for a service that guarantees broadband download speeds of 100 megabits per second (mbps), which is four times faster than the Government’s definition of “super-fast” broadband.

Just last week Beverley was declared the broadband capital of the UK, with the fastest speeds in the country. Speed test site Netindex showed Beverley as the fastest UK broadband location, with an average download speed of 43 mbps – nearly six times the UK average - as a result of the KC Lightstream performance.

The remarkable speeds are delivered because the data travels down fibre-optic cables fed through to customers’ homes, replacing traditional copper connections. KC is stealing a march on other Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as BT, by installing Fibre To The Home (FTTH), rather than Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) - a connection box in the street. Elsewhere in the UK, connections are slowed down by copper cables for the last part of the data journey. In Lightstream premises, speeds are not constrained and the technology is future-proof, enabling acceleration of download speeds as demand for digital data and content grows.

The results seen already are impressive - users of the new service can download music albums in just two seconds, hour-long television programmes in 31 seconds and high-definition films within two minutes. It’s truly a revolution in accessing information and entertainment in homes which now frequently have multiple digital devices  being used at the same time.

But this new network is potentially even more significant in terms of its power to enable the development of East Yorkshire’s emerging digital sector. It has been interesting to note Hull’s growing credentials in this sector - in website and app development, gaming, social media and other disciplines. Indeed, that capability and credibility will be showcased this weekend (17th & 18th March) at Platform 2012, an event at the University of Hull focused on the huge gaming industry.

Quietly, Hull is gaining ground as a centre of knowledge jobs, with technology a key element, supported by high-quality educational establishments, such as the university and Hull College. Also important in this picture is the Hull Digital community of entrepreneurs and developers, which plans its own significant event, HD LIve, at the university on 1st November this year.

Factors are coming together to accelerate this welcome development of technology-based and enabled jobs in the knowledge economy - jobs that will be vital to achieve a re-balancing from public to private sector and blue to white collar employment.

KC’s commercial and financial director Sean Royce talked about this change recently when setting out the benefits for businesses of the Lightstream rollout.  The huge boost to broadband capability will encourage start-ups and SMEs focused on activities such as online retailing, app development and gaming.

Mr Royce pointed out that digital industries already generate £130 billion for the UK economy - 10 per cent of gross added value - and employ six per cent of the workforce. The sector also continues to grow, despite the economic climate. It’s a trend the Government recognises and wants to encourage. It plans to commit £780 million to support the development of super-fast broadband and mobile provision across the UK  to help to deliver a world-class digital infrastructure. Estimates are that the investments by Government and the private sector could create 600,000 new jobs and pump £18 million into the UK economy.

One local digital entrepreneur, John Connolly, wrote in a recent blog on the Hull Digital site that the rapid development of the local broadband network will enable businesses to work and communicate in new, faster, more efficient and effective ways, including through home and remote working. His view was that the Lightstream network would be “the backbone of business and education in the city for years to come”, enabling the development of exciting new enterprises and ways of learning.

And, although large-scale employers, such as Smith & Nephew, Reckitt Benckiser and, indeed, KC,  are hugely important to the East Yorkshire economy, SMEs are the real backbone of UK Plc, providing 60 per cent of private sector jobs.

So, while the headline news is how Siemens, the burgeoning offshore wind industry and other forms of renewable energy will bring new prosperity to Hull and the Humber, it’s not the only story of economic potential and job creation. No doubt renewables will continue to hog the headlines, but the development of digital infrastructure, businesses and jobs may be just as vital over the long term.

Beverley has Britain's fastest broadband
Forget Silicon Valley - welcome to the Humber digital estuary

Hull and the Knowledge Economy

Gadget king's inspiring message to potential young entrepreneurs

I’ve witnessed a business masterclass by one of Britain’s most admired entrepreneurs. It’s far from the first time I’ve listened to a successful businessmen share the secrets of their success, but this was different.

The difference was the audience. It wasn’t a gathering of fellow businessmen and women - listening intently were 12 and 13-year-olds.

The speaker was Jonathan Elvidge, founder of the pioneering Gadget Shop and now owner of RED5, one of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies. His audience came from Hull’s Malet Lambert School - youngsters who have already expressed an interest in starting a business, despite their tender years, or who plan to take Business Studies at GCSE. They had been brought together by the school’s Business Champion Stephen Logan and the For Entrepreneurs Only (FEO) group.

FEO is made up of 70 entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses in Hull and the East Riding and are committed to sharing their experience and wisdom to help others to create wealth and jobs. A key focus is on education and inspiring a new generation of business owners, hence a series of FEO days for local schools featuring members of the group.

So to the Malet Lambert FEO day, hosted at The Exchange educational hub, created by the Hull Esteem consortium, which is transforming the city’s schools through the Building Schools for the Future programme.

I was familiar with some of Jonathan’s story but I hadn’t previously heard him talk, with such understated passion, about why he launched his own business, what he had learned and why others should follow his example.

Jonathan gave up a steady and secure job with telecoms company KC to fulfil his dream by launching The Gadget Shop in Hull’s Princes Quay Shopping Centre 20 years ago. The business grew so fast that, at one time, it was valued at £40 million, before Jonathan lost control, the business was sold and then, after he left, it collapsed.

Undeterred, Jonathan bounced back. With a business partner, he launched RED5 - billed as “the ultimate gadget shop”, with high street stores and concessions across the UK and a growing online business.

The highs and lows of Jonathan’s business career were fascinating. He admitted he just missed an opportunity to sell his Gadget Shop shares before the business began to tail down, but said he had no regrets: “I wouldn’t change a thing - the ups and downs are all learning experiences”.

But of even greater interest were his words of advice to his audience of potential entrepreneurs. He urged them to do what they are passionate about and to ignore the “energy vampires” who daren't take risks and hate to see others strive to fulfil their dreams. Success comes from having a great idea, the passion and belief to bring it to life, and the courage to act upon it. “What you conceive and believe you can achieve”, he says.

He told the youngsters he wasn’t suggesting they should all launch into business straight from education, although some might want to do just that. But he did want them to believe that they too could turn their idea into a business, at some time in their working lives.  “You can do it,” he urged. “Don't think it's for other people. Keep those ideas in your head and, when the time is right, go for it”.

His final pearl of wisdom was powerful. “Companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft were all started by young people with an idea and a vision,” he said. “They changed the world. Who’s to say your ideas couldn’t, too”.

So true and what a thought-provoking message for young people in Hull to hear. I am sure that very few, if any, of the audience will forget Jonathan’s inspiring story and his words of advice. For some, it might just be the spur for them to strike out on their own and create their own business success story.

For Entrepreneurs Only

Malet Lambert School

The Exchange Hull

Hull dispells another negative stereotype - we're a city on the up!

We've all heard them all - Hull supposedly has Britain's worst schools, fattest people and most teenage mums. In fact, none of these myths are true.

The truth is that, while Hull has many of the social issues seen in any major city - and some of the statistics are exaggerated by the very tight local government boundary - it’s a great place and getting better all the time. It's also a place where so many people are working so hard and successfully to raise standards and address issues.

There's more evidence of that today with the excellent news that Hull is no longer one of worst areas in the UK for teenage pregnancies. Congratulations to the teams from Hull City Council and the NHS who have done such great work. It is clear that sustained campaigns and activity around awareness of sexual health and contraception have achieved outstanding results.

Teenage pregnancy has huge consequences in terms of the health, education and life chances of girls who have babies so young, so the progress will have many positive benefits.

Together with fast-rising GCSE results, great new school buildings and a jobs boom from renewables on the way, it is clear that Hull is on the up.

Oh, and we've also got a great story to tell about our region's economy, courtesy of the Hull and East Yorkshire Bondholders - a fantastic network of more than 140 businesses and organisations that is the envy of cities and regions across the country.

City no longer in top 10 for teen pregnancy

Green growth, blue horizons - our economic story

Siemens and the offshore wind bonanza: How can the Humber keep the jobs and wealth

Politicians are not noted for understatement but, in the case of the huge wave of investment on its way to Hull and the Humber, local MPs have played the prospects down.

So says one of them, the West Hull and Hessle MP Alan Johnson, as he puts into perspective how significant the burgeoning renewables sector will be for a city that has lacked a core industry since its fishing fleet was decommissioned after the 1970s Cod Wars.

Hull’s elected representatives have been cautious in celebrating the decision by German giant Siemens to locate a factory manufacturing offshore wind turbines on Hull’s dockside. The caution is understandable. As Mr Johnson says, the city has seen many false economic dawns, but he is in no doubt that this is the real deal. “For once the politicians are underplaying this. It’s astounding what it will do for this area”, says the MP, who compares the impact as “like oil to Aberdeen”.

The Siemens facility will bring 700 new jobs. Many thousands more will come in the supply chain and from other green energy investments along the Humber estuary.

Why the Humber? The key is location. It is just 12 hours “steaming time” from three huge North Sea wind farms where 5,000 turbines will be erected in what has been described as the biggest civil engineering project in the world. It will be a game-changer for an area with high levels of unemployment and reeling from the likely loss of 850 skilled manufacturing jobs at BAE Systems in Brough.

But, while the Humber bids to become the UK’s renewable energy capital, there is a challenge to ensure the resulting jobs and wealth stay in the region. Offshore wind energy is in its infancy in the UK. On the continent there are established supply chains keen to profit as the industry develops in Britain, as companies heard at a conference, Offshore Wind: A Guide for Businesses, staged by industry body the Renewables Network and specialist PR and marketing company Footprint Renewables.

Some local businesses have already grabbed a slice of the action, notably MMS, based in Hull, which will build and operate a fleet of vessels to transfer technicians and equipment to the turbine fields. Others need to get up to speed - and fast.

Renewables Network Business Development Director Sam Pick says Siemens will be “the magnet that drags the rest of the industry on” and says local firms need to find their place in the supply chain. “Think about who you are going to send your invoice to - that’s where you target your products and services”, he urges.

Mr Pick says the big reward for the region is long-term careers, not just jobs. “People can get into these careers and grow with the industry”.

Another speaker, Eric Collis, of the Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA), said a rapidly-evolving industry required a workforce who could learn and relearn skills. They’ll be well paid, though. He quoted £52,000 as the going rate salary for a technician working offshore.

He also predicted fierce competition for contracts. “It will be like the Klondike. Competition will come in like seagulls,” said Mr Collis. “You’re no longer competing with the guy around the corner. You’re competing with the rest of the world and they’re hungry for the work too”.

Capacity to grow and access to funding were vital, said John Britton of Hull-based consultancy BCG Bridgepoint. He said the UK offshore wind industry would be four times bigger in 2016 than in 2010. By 2030 it is predicted to be eight times larger than in 2016. Tracking that exponential growth would see a SME with turnover of £300,000 today become a £10m business, he explained.

Rob Bell, of skills and logistics consultancy Archomai, highlighted a key difference from the Aberdeen experience: “North Sea oil made money; North Sea wind costs money”. The industry’s subsidies meant pressure to reduce supply chain costs by 30 per cent to ease the taxpayer burden. “We’ve got to understand that this is not shopping at Harrods, it’s shopping at Lidl”, he cautioned. Suppliers would profit by driving down the industry’s costs, he said.

Logistics and supply chain expert Professor Chee Wong, from the University of Hull, said another challenge was compliance with a host of accreditations demanded by the likes of Siemens. The university is one of many organisations focused on developing a local skilled workforce equipped for the new opportunities.

Humber firms will also need to find and forge alliances or joint ventures, such as the British and Danish ownership of Alpha Energy, a company based in Hull supplying contract workers to the onshore and offshore wind industries. “You’ve got to put the air miles in”, says Director Bruce Marbrow.

And now is the time to act, says Mr Pick. He’s tired of hearing talk of “if” offshore wind will take off. “It’s not an if,” he says. “We need to be moving right now. This may be new here, but not in Denmark and Germany and companies here will be competing with existing suppliers there.”

• This article was first published in the Yorkshire Post