Sheffield has big hopes to become the UK’s very first self-sufficient energy city

Apparently Sheffield has big hopes. In fact, the city is hoping to become the UK’s very first self-sufficient energy city, according to UK energy minister Chris Huhne. On top of all of this, this deal has already been given Huhne’s full support.

While the energy minister was visiting the city, he stopped by the University of Sheffield. It is here where they are working on world leading research in sustainable technology. Overall, the goal is to come up with technology that can help a city become fully sustainable.

His visit to this city follows an announcement made by the Sheffield City Council and energy company E.ON. They have announced that they are working hard to form a city-wide partnership that will help the city produce enough renewable energy to become self-sufficient. Overtime, the long-term goal would be for the city to produce enough energy that it could even sell some excess energy back into the national grid.

So this brings up the question, why is E.ON choosing to partner with Sheffield over other cities. Apparently E.ON has chosen Sheffield because of its international expertise on developing renewable energy technology, pretty much meaning that E.ON has faith that Sheffield has the willpower to make such a scheme work.

This is a big deal in the making. The overall goal of the government would be to see other cities make these kind of deals with other energy companies. Overtime, all cities could become self-sufficient and, thus, would be able to supply their own energy. Then all of the excess energy that the UK makes could be sold to other countries.