Repowering the Black Country

Repowering was a £2M three year project part-funded by Innovate UK to develop plans to decarbonise the Black Country while increasing the global competitiveness of Black Country industry and growing the regional economy.

Repowering identified three levels of initiative required:

• onsite industrial energy efficiency and behind-the-meter energy asset investments
• collaborative energy initiatives across local industrial parks: zero carbon hubs (ZCHs)
• energy and industrial policy reform and simplification.

These were separately developed as practical proposals (e.g., masterplans for ZCHs) and submitted as proposals to government, ultimately resulting in over £25M of funding being provided for an onsite industrial energy efficiency pilot in the West Midlands from 2023-2026 (BEAS). Policy reform and ZCHs take longer but remain underdevelopment.