Member Article

Graham Hopson tells Bdaily about Northumbria University’s contribution to the regions green future.

As a Business Development Manager at Northumbria University, it is Graham Hopson’s job to provide support for academic staff in developing and commercialising their ideas.

“While my role varies greatly between projects, ultimately it is up to me to help understand how research carried out at Northumbria University will benefit both the commercial sector and society as a whole.”

Recently Graham’s focus has been on the energy sector, and as the North East continues to develop a name for itself as a market leader in green technologies, Northumbria University is in a strong position to be able to contribute to this.

“Northumbria identified key research areas that could contribute to the research and development of Low Carbon technologies and services. We also took into consideration market drivers such as Government regulation and also where money for development was coming from, both privately and publically,” explains Graham.

“We then indentified hotspots for research, in electric vehicles, renewable energy and smart grids, green buildings/smart cities, and climate change”.

The region’s renewable sector has developed rapidly over the past few years, and due to continued investment, the Region could contribute in helping the UK to become a world leader in green technology over the next decade. This presents an incredibly exciting opportunity for the University and the region as a whole.

“One North East has invested heavily into the development offshore wind technology, and we are well placed to take advantage of the good supply chain we have here.

“The Government will soon be announcing a number of new Technology Innovation Centres which will further link the UK research base to Industry. NAREC (Blyth) as a leading organisation in the UK’s renewable energies market is in a very strong position to be involved in the ‘Offshore Renewable Energy Technology Innovation Centre’”

However, these developments do not come without their threats from other energy sources. Although the Government has pledged to cut down on carbon emissions, the discovery of vast shale reserves off the North West England coastline could adversely affect renewable development efforts in our region.

“Shale gas is cheap energy, and could create many jobs,” he continued. “ And this means the Government has some tough decisions to make.

Do you take the cheap fossil fuel option and get the gas out of the ground or continue underpinning renewable technologies which are much more expensive?

“While buring shale gas would increase carbon emissions, maintaining the UK’s own energy supply may take more priority - ultimately a balance will be needed between national energy security and reducing carbon emissions .”

Solar Energy is another area that is currently under the spotlight.

“There is fresh talk from the Government about reducing the feed in tariff for solar energy generated by homeowners perhaps as early as December. This reduction will reduce incentives for householders to pay for installation of solar panels, which may cause the Solar Energy Industry to shrink.”

While Graham does not carry out work in the lab himself, he can certainly see the value and importance of investing in research and development to improve renewable energy technologies available to the market.

“With universities collaborating more and more with Industry, I think that the UK will be in a strong position to take a lead on the world stage.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .