Basic information about North East England

North East England is the most northern administrative region in England located on the east coast just at the border to Scotland. It covers an area of 8500km² populated by 2.5 million inhabitants with an average density of 294 people /km². The settlement pattern of the region is characterised by 62% in urban and 38% in rural areas.

There are two main industrial zones in the region stretching around Newcastle and Sunderland in the centre of the region and around Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool in the south. Developed on the basis of coal, iron and steel industries they faced major structural changes in last 40 years: the number of jobs in the primary sectors, particularly in mineral extraction and manufacturing has fallen since 1971, whilst service sector jobs have increased.

The region is characterized by a great diversity of landscape character. Much of the region has been recognized as Heritage Coast, Northumberland National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is a clear acknowledgement of the national importance of the region's landscape, particularly in the uplands and coastal areas, which are the most popular recreation and tourist destinations at the same time.

The uplands cover 53% of the area. Sparsely populated in contrary to the south of the region they have been officially declared as Less Favored Areas. This area is in the west part of the region and supports a wide range of habitats.

The North East contains of a high percentage of forest cover - 12% in comparison to the UK average of 10%. Woodlands are generally of a small size, occur in most character areas and include a number of biodiversity rich habitats. Being an important element of the landscape they deliver important ecosystem services and wood fuel for local energy needs.

Energy supply in the North East of England is dominated by fossil fuels (coal 39%, gas 36%) and nuclear power (19%). The share of renewable sources is only 4% with biomass partition of 0.5%. The region characterizes, however, a very proactive attitude towards renewable energy sources with the emphasis on biomass. It is an abundant resource here, and this has been shown explicitly in a study investigating the potential economic value from biomass related activities in the North East, which was carried out by Northwoods in 2008.

In recent years many regional, community and private initiatives emerged in the North East which is developing into a Britain’s model biomass energy region. Just to mention a few: NEWFuels wood fuel suppliers group, Alcan power plant (420MW) co-fired with biomass, Wilton 10 a wood-fired biomass power station (30MW), largest known biomass heating boiler in the UK installed in a chipboard factory in Hexham (50MW), 35 small scale biomass heating sites and 12 landfill gas installations operating in the region. Project BEn is aiming to link the existing initiatives and develop a sustainable biomass supply chain on that basis.