Bristol is a world centre of sustainable energy research and development, home to global players in the fast-maturing wind power industry and the nascent tidal and wave power movements. The city council was recently named the most pro-active local authority in the UK for its pioneering work in changing the way it produces, uses and conserves energy.
The council's Energy Management Unit (EMU) was launched in the early 1990s, since which time over £1m has been invested in improving the energy efficiency of council-owned buildings, with a saving of around £4.5m in energy bills. Today the EMU is working successfully towards an impressive set of sustainable energy targets.
As well as increasing energy efficiency the city has also demonstrated its commitment to renewable energy technologies with the ongoing development of two 3MW wind turbines at Avonmouth. When built, these will complement the three turbines already managed by Ecotricity for the Bristol Port Company - the most visible symbol of the city's vibrant wind power industry.
Biomass boilers have been installed at a number of council-owned sites, including Blaise Estates and Florence Brown Community School. These are designed to burn wood chips and waste wood, so reducing both fuel bills and the city's reliance on fossil fuels. The woodlands of the Forest of Avon represent a largely untapped source of biomass, while the council's EMU is exploring the possibility of reintroducing coppice willow - a historic fuel source in the region - on its land.
From the oldest energy source to the newest, with Bristol companies at the forefront of research into tidal energy capture. As the world watches the fascinating debate over plans for tidal energy generation in the mouth of the River Severn, the city council is actively supporting the growth of the sustainable energy sector through the Bristol Environmental Technologies and Services (BETS) initiative.
But perhaps the city's greatest strength in this area lies in the fact that expertise in sustainable energy is so strongly rooted. This year the Bedminster-based Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) celebrates thirty years of helping people and organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors meet the challenge of rising energy costs and climate change.
Worldwide renewable energy consultancy Garrad Hassan has been in business twenty-five years, operating out of the city's historic St Vincent's Works since 2001. The remarkable Victorian building, with its delightful interior mosaics and tilework, attracts thousands of visitors during the annual Bristol Doors Open Day. It seems apt that a building with such a powerful connection to the city's industrial past should be home to this pioneering twenty-first century business.
To prepare for the future, meanwhile, a Peak Oil Task Force, jointly commissioned by Alastair Sawday, Chair of the Green Capital Momentum Group and David Bishop, Strategic Director - City Development at the city council, is currently researching Bristol's role in a post-carbon world. The task force will produce a report which pulls together key research and evidence from experts in the field, capture what this may mean for the future of the city and its residents, and identify possible courses of action to respond to the challenge.