On Monday 28th February Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations visited the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre (BEIC) at Tyseley Energy Park (TEP).
Led by the Provost Professor Tim Jones and supported by the Birmingham Energy Institute, Mr Gove was able to discover how the collaboration between the City, University of Birmingham and TEP is supporting the levelling up opportunities created by their combined efforts to accelerate the transition to net zero.
Professor Martin Freer, Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute presented the vision to establish a National Centre for Decarbonisation of Heat (NCDH), a £20m Levelling Up funding application that will support the testing and validation of new low carbon heating technologies whilst training a new generation of engineers to retrofit homes across the region.
Following the presentation Mr Gove was taken on a tour of the BEIC where he was shown examples of the technologies developed by the BEI in thermal energy storage, battery recycling and recovery of rare earth metals which are all critical to the UK industrial strategy.
Speaking about the visit Martin Freer said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the Secretary of State on to Site and demonstrate the different ways we are creating opportunities for the wider region. From supporting and incubating SME’s to our policy commission that is exploring how we can deliver low carbon heating effectively, and to everyone, we are committed to supporting the City and its residents.”
