We had a fantastic second meeting of the Southampton Energy Coalition at St Mary’s Stadium this week. The Coalition is a platform I have established, in partnership with Energy Minister Lord Alan Whitehead CBE, to allow key players in the city to collaborate and increase our energy resilience.
The Coalition was established after research from the University of Southampton and Dr Alan Whitehead showed that our city could reach full electricity capacity as early as 2026. With the port electrifying, buses going greener and more data centres on the horizon, Southampton urgently needs more capacity and more clean energy of its own.
It was brilliant to get over 60 people in the room this week, including SSEN, ABP, Blue Star, Star Energy, Bring Energy and Southampton General Hospital, alongside Darren Paffey MP. There was a real buzz and a feeling of partnership at the meeting, which is exactly why we created this coalition in the first place.