At the  first meeting of the Energy Sub-Group of Manchester’s Climate Change Action Plan - Manchester: A Certain Future - a recurring theme was the lack of direction in terms of sustainable infrastructure development in the city. How can developers be empowered to make a more sustainable investment decision if there’s insufficient information out there? 

The group has decided to focus on improving knowledge of opportunities and ensuring that developers know that “Manchester is 'open for business’ in terms of combined heat and power infrastructure, renewable generation smart grids etc.

While we acknowledge that the opportunities for renewable heat connections may currently be limited, through improved dialogue, we can surely start to remove these barriers.

While we acknowledge that the opportunities for renewable heat connections may currently be limited, through improved dialogue, we can surely start to remove these barriers. We will help share with stakeholders the range of technological opportunities for electricity generation there actually are out there. We want to guide people to the latest thinking and plans locally. This will make a big difference to decision-making. Organisations need a quick route to understand  the strategy for making the city accessible to electric vehicles, for instance. That may affect their cost-benefit analysis on introducing electric vehicle charging points. 

The Energy sub-group will identify two or three projects for the year ahead. We want to start a wider conversation with the city and we want it to be transparent and pluralistic. We want to bring in expertise where we don’t have it and we want to help facilitate some near-term aspirations.

If you are interested in the work of the Energy group contact Damian by emailing Damian@smartgreen.org.uk.