An innovative new partnership has been announced between SSE Energy Solutions and the Western Gateway Partnership at the Convention of the Western Gateway 2024, to help prepare South Wales and Western England for a net zero energy network.
The agreement will give local authorities across the area access to advice on Local Area Energy Planning, opportunities to deliver new energy generation projects, and support to connect to the grid.
The Western Gateway is the pan-regional partnership for South Wales and Western England, bringing together 28 local authorities alongside business and academia representatives. Through collaboration the Partnership has already helped to secure millions of pounds of investment for the area in nuclear and hydrogen energy through bringing together business, universities and local authorities.
Sarah Williams-Gardener, Chair of the Western Gateway Partnership, said:
“Decarbonising our energy system is one of our board’s key priorities. We know from our Economic Narrative that our ability and potential to create new Low Carbon Energy is one of our area’s major strengths.
“We have incredible investment opportunities across including Floating Offshore Wind in the Celtic Sea, Celtic Freeport, CCR Energy at Aberthaw, the Severn Edge Low Carbon Energy Park and the West of England Local Industrial Decarbonisation Plan. Ensuring our energy system is capable of supporting the projects will be a major focus for our partnership, and SSE can add essential advice to ensure we can do this.”
This new agreement was unveiled at the beginning of the Convention which brought together representatives of the public sector, industry and academia delegates to launch the area’s Plan for Sustainable Growth.
Nathan Sanders, is Managing Director of SSE Energy Solutions, part of SSE plc. In 2023, SSE laid out plans that could see it invest up to £40 billion across the decade to 2031/32.
Nathan said:
“Credible partnerships lead to deliverable projects, and these begin by talking constructively to organisations in both the public and private sector.
“The Western Gateway ambition to deliver projects at scale across a functional economic geography is one shared across SSE.”
SSE has a growing role supporting a range of high-profile energy infrastructure projects across South Wales and Western England. This includes an agreement with Cardiff Capital Region Energy to explore solutions for transforming the old Aberthaw coal-powered plant into a green energy hub.
