On 12 February, I wrote about ‘IMPACT – Powering a green revolution’, an event organised by the Northern Echo’s business section ‘BUSINESSiQ’ ten days earlier. In that article, I focused on Part 1 of the day, a conversation with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen. You can read the article here. In this piece, I’ll detail Part 2, a five-person panel discussion.
When are we going to get to the Green Revolution bit?
Part 1 of the day hadn’t lived up to its ‘Green Revolution’ billing. Most of the projects described weren’t really green and, in fact, would continue Teesside’s dependence on fossil fuels. Would Part 2 be an improvement? You can probably guess the answer to that but bear with me. Mike Hughes hosted again. The panellists took their seats at the front of the audience, then introduced themselves. First off, Mike asked the students in the audience for a show of hands about who liked what they’d heard so far. No hands went up. Moving swiftly on….
Education Training Collective
Time to hear from the training sector, in the shape of Grant Glendinning, CEO of the Education Training Collective (ETC). The ETC runs a group of Further Education Colleges and apprenticeship providers. A Year 11 student told Grant that he kept hearing a lot about large projects in the Tees Valley, but these never seem to translate into training opportunities for young people. And then, an unexpected statement from Grant “Apprenticeships are the greatest thing. However, the apprenticeship system in the Tees Valley is broken”. He said that this was a strong word, but it was true. Only one in four apprenticeships went to young people aged 16-18. Apprenticeships have become an Adult Education domain.
Disjointed system
And there were glitches in the system. Grant told of a Retrofit Academy set up at Redcar & Cleveland College in 2023, to kit out older houses with energy-saving improvements such as home insulation. But the stimulus money that had been promised from the government was suddenly withdrawn. Grant also complained that school leavers in the Tees Valley didn’t know what to train for. The key programme in Redcar is Teesworks, which is a “Build it and they will come” concept. Grant noted that the ETC, and the would-be apprentices, wouldn’t know which skills the employers needed until the prospective employers had actually signed up for Teesworks sites. Very few have. But, regardless of Teesside’s age range, apprentices who do sign up, do well. The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) comes 2nd out of 12 devolved Mayoral areas when it comes to starts and achievements.
Misspent youth
Earlier in the morning, Ben Houchen had said that, if he’d had his time over again, he wouldn’t have gone to university, taken a law degree, and become one of the most influential politicians in the country. He’d have become an apprentice. And his two children, one of whom has just been born, should become apprentices too. I’m not absolutely convinced by that anecdote. Houchen had mentioned the UK Youth Guarantee Trailblazer, targeted at young people aged 18 to 21 who are not in Education, Employment & Training (NEET). The Trailblazer is run by the TVCA, who will offer six-month work placements, and pay trainees their wages on behalf of employers. But applicants will need to be quick, the programme ends in March 2026.
It’s aviation fuel, and they say it’s sustainable
Mike Hughes asked Grant if he’d spoken to any local employers lately. Grant said that he’d spoken to LanzaJet, which gave Mike the opportunity to bring Stewart Stewart into the conversation.
So good they named him twice
Stewart Stewart, a softly spoken American, is the CEO of Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT). NPT is part of a joint venture with LanzaJet and British Airways called Project Speedbird. NPT will produce ethanol from wood residues, then sell the ethanol to LanzaJet, who will blend it with fossil aviation fuel. This will then be sold on to British Airways. NPT has been located at the former ICI site, Wilton International, since 2008. In 2013, the company received a £3mn grant from the Department for Transport (DfT). The cash was handed over to help set up a pilot facility to make biofuels, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). And it’s not just any SAF – it’s carbon negative SAF.
Seven years bad luck
In April 2020, Wilton International’s press office hinted that the NPT’s pilot plant had begun operation after seven years of trial and error. In November 2022, the company confirmed its joint venture to supply SAF. to British Airways Had NPT actually started to make SAF, if only in sample quantities? There were no updates on this, and so it continued. Then, in June 2025, some astonishing news; NPT was named among the UK’s Top 10 CleanTech Innovators in 2025. For what, exactly? The company had been in existence for 17 years and hadn’t produced a single drop of SAF at commercial scale. This smacks very strongly of greenwashing. You can read here about how I recently debunked SAF as an elaborate deception.
REFNOVA®
Stewart explained to the audience about NPT’s REFNOVA reformation technology process. This will convert woody residues into ethanol, and ‘bio char’. Bio char is, effectively, artificial charcoal. The ethanol can be used to make road fuel, or even refined sugar, but 90% will be distilled into SAF. The company claims that REFNOVA is ‘scalable’. I asked Stewart why, if the process was scalable, it hadn’t been scaled up into commercial production since being piloted six years ago.
Give me just a little more time
I was being generous; NPT has actually been at this for 18 years; its Green Revolution has lasted eight years longer than the French one. Stewart explained that he’d only been at the company for three weeks. I checked the timeline:
I just keep repeating myself
- In January 2020, Sara Ellerby was hired as CEO of NPT, in an attempt to troubleshoot the stalled SAF project.
- In January 2026, Stewart Stewart was hired as CEO of NPT in an attempt to troubleshoot the stalled SAF project.
I checked my phone. It was 2 February, actual Groundhog Day. What are the chances? Stewart said that he was just starting to get to grips with the challenges of converting laboratory processes into real world production. Will he turn things around in time to be named among the Top 10 CleanTech Innovators in 2026? Stranger things have happened. Mike Hughes asked Stewart what type of employees he was looking for. ‘People who can make new things.’ With a straight face.
Back down to Earth
Mike then introduced Stephen Mcdonald, Energy and Sustainability Manager at Durham County Council, Stephen enthused about the exciting prospects for deep geothermal energy to be produced in the County. “It’s probably something that’s got me the most excited in my 20 years in local government”. Steady on.
Deep geothermal energy? What’s that?
So, it’s heat generated within the earth’s crust. Geothermal energy isn’t science fiction; Iceland derives 65% of its thermal energy from it. However, there are very specific reasons why Iceland benefits from geothermal energy, and other places don’t. It sits on a divergent plate boundary. Also, a hotspot ‘plume’ extends 650 km beneath the earth’s surface. Fissures allow rainwater to permeate down to the heated rock. Because of this, Iceland doesn’t have to dig too deep for its geothermal energy. Much of the hot water and steam bubbles to the surface.
Deep, deep down
Stephen explained that Durham Council’s ideas weren’t shallow; “I’m talking six to seven kilometres down into the earth. We’ve got granite underneath our feet, in various places. We always knew we had it, but we didn’t think it actually extended right across to the north of the city (of Durham). He’s not wrong; here’s a British Geological Survey (BGS) map, showing that deep granite layer in yellow. You can view the BGS’ interactive version here, complete with explainer video.
Meet hot rocks in your area
Unlike Iceland, Durham’s granite is heated by radioactive decay, not volcanic activity. This means that Durham doesn’t have natural heat exchangers; These would need to be manufactured and installed as a closed loop system. This is known as ‘Hot Dry Rock’ geothermal energy. But no such systems have ever been cost effective, partly because these tough igneous rocks are difficult to drill through.
Wishful thinking
And there’s a deeper problem. Iceland has been experimenting with deep drilling for 26 years, with disappointing results. And none of the experiments have gone deeper than 2.5 km. Durham’s granite is almost three times deeper than this. By way of comparison, Boulby mine in North Yorkshire, the deepest in Europe, extends a mere 1.4 km below the surface. Installing heat exchangers to a depth five times deeper than Boulby would be technically challenging and expensive. Mike Hughes asked Stephen whether the programme was recruiting young people. No, not specifically for deep geothermal. Put the grandkids on the waiting list though.
Social housing
The next panellist was Faye Gordon, Executive Director of Finance & Investment at beliieve housing, one of the North East’s largest housing associations. It’s a challenging sector to work in, with intense scrutiny from a media that, almost without exception, doesn’t believe in social housing. Installation of solar panels can be a hard sell, even though the financial benefits are immediate. Mike Hughes asked Faye which sectors her organisation was looking to recruit for. It was a very wide selection. All sorts of tradespeople, plus back office staff. Faye emphasised the value of soft skills in recruits. Many of them will be dealing with disadvantaged people. The work necessitates intrusion into home life.
District Heat networks
Mike Hughes reminded Faye that the Energy Regulator (Ofgem) changed the District Heat regulations a few weeks ago. District Heat networks consist of pipe networks that transfer surplus heat from nearby factories to houses and apartments. Faye didn’t need reminding. The changes should make for a fairer system but will involve a lot of extra work for her team.
Hot air update
District Heat programmes have got a mixed reputation in the Tees Valley. In November 2018, Ben Houchen announced a £40mn District Heat programme for Middlesbrough that would have included, among other sites, the vast James Cook University Hospital complex. The TVCA paid £200,000 for legal advice related to the deal. No hot air has ever been produced. Apart from the obvious. Meanwhile, just over in Grangetown, there have been two blatant PR exercises in an attempt to green-wash unpalatable projects. The giant Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TVERF) incinerator, and a nearby hazardous waste incinerator have both promised cash savings and green energy for local residents by installing District Heating networks. This will never happen.
Miles on the clock
The fifth and final panellist of the day was Miles Askew, He’s ‘Europe on Highway Product Planning’ man at Cummins in Darlington. The Darlington site is part of Cummins’ Accelera business segment, which is developing a wide variety of powertrain components for trucks. These include battery systems, fuel cells and the ePowertrain, an advanced transmission system.
The end of the line
The Accelera segment also produces electrolyzers for hydrogen powered vehicles. But hydrogen vehicles are an evolutionary dead-end, although companies such as Cummins don’t quite know it yet. Miles and the team are working to reduce the carbon footprint of Cummins’ diesel engines, and the company also produces engines that can run on ethanol. Miles needs to network with Stewart Stewart of NPT. Oh well, maybe not.
Up on the roof
Cummins is about to install solar panels on the roof of its Darlington building. For those that don’t know it, Cummins’ factory is Grade II listed, a striking example of modernism. If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think that its extensive flat roof, built in 1964, was designed with solar panels in mind. Miles then described the company’s fuel-agnostic powertrain testing facility. You don’t see many of those.
Electric trucks
I asked Miles whether Cummins would ever future-proof the Darlington site by producing electric motors for trucks. He said that it wasn’t on the horizon. Miles will be aware that Cummins almost brought an electric truck to market in 2019, but scrapped the programme. Meanwhile, 231,000 hybrid and electric trucks were sold in China alone in 2025. When China starts to export trucks in large quantities, it’ll put companies such as Cummins under extreme pressure.
Careers at Cummins
Mike Hughes asked Miles what opportunities were available for young people. In addition to the obvious core of engineering, the company also needs to train health and safety experts. Roles in finance are available too. Mike Hughes asked about gender balance at Cummins. This can be a male-dominated industry. Miles confirmed that Cummins are proud participants in the Women in Engineering (WEM) network.
How Green was my Tees Valley?
And so the morning ended. Is a Green Revolution about to sweep the Tees Valley? Well, there’s some interesting technology in the offing. But a lot of it isn’t really green, and some of it belongs in a Jules Verne novel. To describe the overall package as a Green Revolution would be hyperbole.
Thanks to James Waterson for providing additional research for this article
