DUP and Alliance at odds over how new GB Energy company should benefit Northern Ireland
The DUP and Alliance are at odds over the potential benefits to Northern Ireland from the government’s GB Energy plans – with Paul Frew saying that local further education colleges need more investment, and Sorcha Eastwood arguing for a training hub at the Maze.
The government recently announced the first major partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate “to unleash billions of investment in clean power, across the United Kingdom”. The deal is an attempt to encourage private green energy companies to invest in the UK and help meet the government’s plans to make the UK’s electricity system carbon neutral.
How that will benefit Northern Ireland remains to be seen, as the province is part of the all-Ireland single electricity market.
The Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood says that the Maze site “could play a major role in green skills and upskilling people for jobs for the future”.
The Lagan Valley MP told the News Letter: “This is about getting every opportunity for NI that there is, of course we know that the ISEM is there, but this is about trying to think of new ways of doing things.
“The UK Government have committed to working with the NI Executive to see where opportunities lie for us here in NI and I believe there is a role for upskilling people to fill the jobs that will be in demand as a result of increasing capacity in the network and NI can play a big role in terms of contributing to that as a training centre, even located at the MLK site.
“Those people trained here could either go over to Scotland, GB and some could stay here or go down south.
“I'm about getting every opportunity for people here in NI and that's what every party should be doing”.
DUP MLA Paul Frew – who has taken a keen interest in the local energy sector – says that local further education colleges need more investment as electrical technicians trained there will end up working in the renewable technologies sector.
He has accused Alliance of “setting its sights low” by suggesting a training hub at the Maze, and said that there should be more investment in the existing Further and Higher Education colleges. He says the electricians they train will form the basis of the renewables industry, and the colleges are currently struggling to provide enough training places.
On GB Energy, he said: “We really need to see the text of the bill and what it is designed to do, whatever the benefits, if any, they should be of benefit to all in Northern Ireland, not just in one specific geographical area.
“It's not bricks and mortar in one specific location we need, no matter how much you label it as a centre of excellence. It's valuable and credible training courses that can be rolled out in our further educational facilities across the country that deliver meaningful qualifications that's important.
“Yet at this very moment in time my worry is the availability of electrical installation courses that will deliver the very people who would naturally go on to develop their skill sets in the renewable energy installation and technology industries”, he said.