Once the fishing capital of the world, Grimsby’s fortunes took a turn for the worse in recent decades, leaving a depressed town with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. But now it is being reborn as the renewable energy capital of England, generating more electricity from solar, wind, biomass and landfill gas than anywhere else, and creating “new hope” in the area. It makes an astonishing 28 per cent of the electricity it uses from green sources – much of it from household solar panels and wind turbines, according to new research. This puts it way ahead of its closest rival – Doncaster, weighing in at a respectable 19 per cent – and makes London, at a minuscule 0.06 per cent, l ook pathetic. Birmingham doesn’t fare much better, at 1.4 per cent, or Manchester at 6.8 per cent, according to the Green Alliance think-tank. Although Grimsby might not seem the obvious choice for a green capital – Brighton, with the country’s sole Green Party MP, or technology-obsessed Cambridge may seem more likely candidates – there are plenty of reasons why the town is head and shoulders above the rest.
Independent 7th Feb 2016 read more »