Co-operation: a tool for the next government?
- July 2024
Manchester and Liverpool join forces to explore green energy potential and cooperative models of ownership
- 20th Dec 2022
- Climate Change & Environment
Metro Mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram have launched a taskforce to explore whether sufficient green energy through wind, hydro, solar - and even grass - could be harvested to power the equivalent of both city regions.
The Green Energy Task Force, launched on 17 October at the Greater Manchester Green Summit, is a collaboration between the Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Regions, green entrepreneur Dale Vince, Co-operatives UK and supported by Climate Outreach. The task force will map the green energy potential of both city regions and look at how people in the northwest can directly own and control those resources.
Dale Vince is the founder of pioneering green energy supplier Ecotricity. He said: “We can power the whole of Britain by harnessing our wind, sun, waves and even grass. And we know it makes the most sense for the people to own these resources so that the benefits accrue to us as a country.
“The Green Energy Task Force is the first step towards that and doing so at a regional level – starting with the Greater Manchester and Liverpool regions. It will create a blueprint that can be replicated across the country, by all regions – in pursuit of a net zero carbon in the 2030s.”
The task force will explore new opportunities as well as build upon existing work and partnerships in both city regions – potentially accelerating the development of Liverpool City Region’s tidal plans and Greater Manchester’s ‘Go neutral’ solar photovoltaic programme.
