Power – a headache for investing businesses For high energy use businesses, finding a site with a suitable grid connection can be difficult, time consuming and expensive, according to commercial property specialists Lambert Smith Hampton. “Industrial companies are struggling to find sites with large power supplies,” a company representative says. “It can take over a year for a supply to be installed and the capital outlay is significant”. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Peak Resources, to name just one recent investor, chose the site over international competitors for their multi-million pound investment in a minerals refining facility.

Perhaps the first thing a visitor to Wilton International notices is the sheer scale of the site. At 2,000 acres (809 hectares) it’s vast, and home to an array of large-scale industrial operations including green energy generation, chemicals manufacturing, biofuels production and plastics recycling. Wilton International began as an integrated manufacturing site owned and operated by the chemicals giant ICI. Following that company’s business divestment programme in the 1990s and 2000s, the site’s energy and manufacturing assets were acquired by various international corporations.

“This is a massive infrastructure project and Sembcorp are delighted that Wilton International has been chosen for part of this major investment,” Matthew said. “It’s one of the largest construction projects that Wilton International has seen in recent years and it’s very much in alignment with our commitment to decarbonise our industrial site. Two converter substations will be built on a 20-acre plot – the first for the Sofia Wind Farm, the second for the adjacent Dogger Bank C Offshore Wind Farm.

A challenging year for biotech and pharma companies Since early 2020, supply chains globally have been under great strain due to the effects of the pandemic on both trade and production. Biotech and pharma companies have faced the challenge of producing new vaccines, tests and treatments at a rate that would previously have been unthinkable, at a time when countries across the world have been under lockdown, with increasingly tight borders.

The pressure on industry is coming from several directions. Consumers, inspired by media coverage including the BBC’s Blue Planet series, are demanding action on marine and other plastic waste. Government legislation and targets, including the UK’s 2050 goal for net zero carbon, mean that reducing waste and emissions is imperative. And now shareholders are adding to the pressure, by demanding increasingly robust sustainability and decarbonisation strategies from the businesses they invest in.

Teesside’s Winning Freeport Bid Covering more than 4,500 acres of land, the equivalent of 2,250 football pitches, Teesside’s will be the largest of the UK’s 8 new Freeport zones. And the successful bid provides an excellent example of what can be achieved when Teesside’s industrial cluster, with public and private sector partners including local authorities and ports, work together. The Freeport zone includes ten distinct areas on or close to the River Tees, with forecasts estimating the attraction of more than 18,000 jobs to the area over five years, and a £3.

Whether it’s woody residues or non-edible agricultural crop residues, the chances are that cleantech innovators Nova Pangaea can turn your forestry and agriculture residues into something as valuable as it is environmentally friendly. “We process residue biomass from agricultural or forestry customers,” explains Neil Guilder, Nova Pangaea’s CFO. “That gives us valuable sugars and biocarbons such as biochar and activated carbon. The sugars can be turned into bioethanol, biopolymers and biochemicals, while the biochar can be used for soil enhancers, sustainable solid fuels, or be further processed to activated carbon, used for air and water filtration and green steel.

Wilton International, a 2,000-acre industrial site in Teesside, UK, is home to a well-established cluster of energy-intensive businesses, each benefiting from a unique combination of infrastructure, utilities and services. And with 562 acres of development land currently available, the site is drawing significant interest from prospective new occupants with similar requirements. “At present, we have development plots available in sizes from 2.5 up to 66 acres”, says Matthew Scrimshaw, Commercial Director at Sembcorp Energy UK, the company that manages the site and owns much of the land.

Vulnerable supply chains That’s because the pandemic subjected the UK’s critical supply chains to stress tests that, in many cases, revealed weaknesses. Demand for medical and personal protective equipment (PPE) exceeded supply, exposing the country’s reliance on imports. In the words of the GTMA manufacturers’ trade body: “Amongst the many things we have learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic there is a wider recognition that cheapest purchase price has generated a vulnerability of supply chains with geographic disruption and reduced capacity to uplift production in the UK.

Streamlining the planning and permissions process Arranging the necessary permissions for a new industrial project can be time-consuming – a factor that RCBC does everything possible to minimise. When it comes to planning, the council has two major strings to its bow. One is the support it offers through the planning process itself, as Adrian Miller, who heads up planning at the council, explains. “We provide a free planning pre-application service.

Industry is transforming. The UK’s Industrial Strategy1 highlights major growth opportunities in areas including sustainable transport, carbon reduction, big data, and healthcare solutions for an ageing population. And as new technologies are commercialised, high-growth businesses are seeking suitable locations and sites for their manufacturing operations. High-technology industrial companies have diverse location requirements, but a number of themes recur. Typical needs include development-ready sites with large power supplies, excellent transport and data connectivity, and access to a highly skilled labour force.

SABIC, one of the world’s largest petrochemicals manufacturers, recently upgraded their ‘cracker’ at Wilton International (Olefins 6), to run on ethane imported from the USA. The project took two years to deliver, at a cost of £300 million. The company now runs the most feedstock-flexible cracker in Europe, producing ethylene, propylene and butadiene - essential chemical building blocks for many everyday products. A complex industrial investment project The project was multi-faceted, with input from partners across Teesside and beyond.

With four on-site power plants as well as national grid backup and over 500 acres of development-ready land, investing companies can build their facility and then just plug and play. Watch this short animated video for an overview of Wilton International’s unique site offer to energy intensive businesses. Energy. Space. Plug & Play. ';" class="embed-container" style="background-image: url('https://res.cloudinary.com/wilton/image/upload/v1580054957/wILTON-VID-THUMB.png');background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:cover;"