News
Ministerial Visit to Birmingham Office
In the past decade, the Rolton Group has rapidly accelerated its development in the field of sustainability, utilising the experience and extensive subject knowledge of the senior management team to create low-carbon solutions for global clients across a variety of sectors.
We are therefore delighted to have been asked to host a ministerial visit from Dan Byles MP and the Rt Hon Greg Barker MP, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on 28th November 2013, as this is a real testament to Rolton expertise.
The MPs attended our Birmingham office to meet staff and discuss contemporary energy issues with Chairman Peter Rolton, whose understanding of the industry is reinforced by four years spent on the government’s Renewables Advisory Board as well as direct involvement with a plethora of bespoke client and project requirements. Policy issues and barriers to the sustainable market were top of the agenda, discussed with the benefit of first-hand industry experience. Recently announced Governmental support for district heating schemes across the UK was welcomed, however, and we were keen to discuss a number of current projects that will benefit from utilisation of embedded energy and decentralised power. This is a solution that has been vociferously advocated by Minister Greg Barker as a much-needed ‘energy revolution’ through which the Big Six must become ‘the Big 60,000’, and he was keen to hear more of our work in this area.
The discussion turned to the Northampton Enterprise Partnership, with whom we are developing a proposal for a waste to energy facility and a community power and heating network that will bring the manifold benefits of reducing landfill waste, alleviating strain from the National Grid and providing users with a secure source of power at a stable price. The Northampton project is an important part of the town centre regeneration scheme, Northampton Alive, which includes the largest enterprise zone in the country, and is the first of a number of country-wide needs and opportunities to be identified by the NEP Energy Group. The scheme is being delivered through private sector funding, with both Northampton County Council and Northampton Borough Council working together to enable local, decentralised energy provision and its recognised associated benefits.
We were also pleased to use the occasion to formally announce a landmark project with one of our prestigious automotive clients; Honda is harnessing the potential of on-site generation by constructing a biomass energy centre that will provide energy to their Swindon plant, and this is another Rolton project with real green credentials.