Town centre to be transformed
‘WE SHOULD BE GRASPING IN BOTH HANDS’
THE burgeoning offshore wind sector and other huge Net Zero themes on the Humber are to be showcased in Grimsby town centre in a bid to inspire, educate and enthuse.
Green energy and cleaning up existing industry offers a huge opportunity for the area, and a contemporary box park between Freshney Place and Alexandra Dock is set to bring the emerging careers to life.
The Low Carbon and Renewables Exploratorium will allow children and families to interact and learn, with hands-on experience at the fore for jobs hidden behind port gates, process units and pipework on the Energy Estuary.
It is being led by project director Richard Askam, with a host of industry patrons already pledging support alongside North East Lincolnshire Council, enabling it to fuel future aspirations as a long-term national centre of excellence. Now in preplanning for land beside the emerging Horizon Youth Zone off Garth Lane, it is hoped construction could start next summer, for a first phase to be open a year from now.
Sharon Wroot, executive director of place, environment, economy and resources at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “It is one of the many fantastic opportunities we should be grasping in both hands.
“It is an opportunity to showcase to the people who live here and work here what’s out there and what’s available. It is an opportunity to hook young people into something tangible and real in terms of future employment opportunities.
“We know a lot of young people go away to study and don’t come back. We want to give them a reason to either come back or stay.
“It is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the renewable industry. We are moving into a phase where we are genuinely seeing change, which has been a long time coming, and at last we are making it happen, collaboratively, working together.”
More than 1,000 jobs have already been created in offshore wind alone, with Grimsby home to the £14m operations and maintenance base for Orsted, where the team is on target to reach 800-plus by the decade’s end, looking after the world’s largest wind farms just off the Humber approaches.
RWE is another huge investor with big plans, with others circling, while the region is also seen as leading on hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage agendas. All are
vital to keep steel, power and key process industries behind materials for everyday products, here, operational and employing - without the pollution.
Ms Wroot said: “We have the heritage in terms of the fishing industry, but we also have a future in terms of the sea and all the opportunities that it brings.
“A lot of young people in Grimsby don’t even know where these opportunities are.”
Wider plans would tap into the dock to produce a watersports training centre, while creating space to encourage an evening and weekend economy to maximise the location.
Proposals would see it feature play equipment to support health and wellbeing, art and installation to support culture and destination creation, and immersive activities like those at Eureka and Magna in
West and South Yorkshire.
Mr Askam said: “It is not just a classroom teaching about wind, it is an experience the likes of which has never been seen before in Grimsby.
“The next industrial revolution has already started.”
Major companies Orsted, Siemens, Equinor and the home-grown Myenergi are on board as patrons, with other key partners drawn from industry and education.
“We are a long way down the road to the next industry and we cannot possibly hit Net Zero unless we all do our jobs, this is a part of it,” Mr Askam said.
The scheme was given its public launch at business support operation Investment Hub NEL’s annual celebration event at Stallingborough Grange, attended by scores of companies.