City of Liverpool College's new multi-million pound clean energy centre will power its entire Liverpool Waters campus through solar, wind and battery storage, supporting the £5.5bn regeneration project in the city's historic docklands.
The centre, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, is set to officially open next month, providing training opportunities across renewable energy, sustainable construction and clean technology for hundreds of students a year.
Building as Curriculum
College principal Elaine Bowker told the Northern Agenda newsletter: "What's brilliant about it is the building is the curriculum. So students are not working with a mini wind turbine, students are not working with solar panels on a rig on the floor, which is happening in every other college. It's a centre that's built to height, students will be working on solar panels on the roof."
She added: "Liverpool Waters is Europe's third biggest development and we're right in the centre of it. There is not going to be a home, an office, nothing [that doesn't need clean energy], everything that's going to go on in that development is going to need clean energy and it's going to need the skills."
Skills Summit and AI Labs
Recently named as one of five clean energy technical excellence colleges in the UK, City of Liverpool College is next month spearheading a Clean Energy Skills Summit at Liverpool's Titanic Hotel, bringing together global leaders from industry, education, politics and the military.
Merseyside's largest further education college is also opening a state-of-the-art laboratory devoted to artificial intelligence, alongside another specialising in cyber security, before Christmas at the college's Digital Academy in Liverpool's Knowledge Quarter.
Regional Clean Energy Ambitions
The clean energy centre and summit are part of efforts by leaders in the Liverpool City Region and the wider North West to establish themselves as a clean energy powerhouse by leveraging coastal geography, heavy industrial infrastructure and pioneering decarbonisation projects.
Merseyside sits at the core of HyNet North West, combining industrial-scale carbon capture and storage with a dedicated hydrogen network. Complementing this are the Mersey Tidal Power project and extensive Irish Sea offshore wind developments.
This year City of Liverpool College was designated a Clean Energy Technical Excellence provider by the Government, with funding awarded as part of that status helping pay for the new facility. Delivered by Task Contract Solutions Ltd, a Merseyside-based specialist in renewable energy and sustainable construction, the centre is designed to ensure the local workforce is trained in the latest technology "for the jobs of today and the future".
Almost 250 students studied at the Construction Academy in its first year. The new centre is expected to double that number.
Ms Bowker pointed out that currently only about 25 to 35% of students doing a construction-related qualification go on to be successful in that sector. "And one of the biggest issues that gets in the way is site experience. So we have put this on Liverpool Waters in the middle of all that development, one side of it is house building, and the other side is the actual clean energy centre."
City of Liverpool is one of just five colleges awarded Clean Energy Excellence status by the Government and one of just two in Northern England. Backed by a £175 million government investment, the aim of the project is to close critical green sector worker shortages and support the regional transition to net zero.
Clean Energy Skills Summit 2026
The Clean Energy Skills Summit 2026 at the Titanic Hotel in nearby Stanley Dock takes place between 9am and 5pm on Monday November 16. Organisers promise "organisations investing in clean energy will come together in Liverpool, from across the city region and around the world".
They add: "You'll hear directly from employers about the skills they need most and get a closer look at the latest technology. We'll also show you the training and pathways that will give people in our region the skills to be part of it."
Ms Bowker said the answer to ensuring the scheme generates jobs for young people growing up in Bootle or Anfield is "quite simple, we make it more complicated than it needs to be". She added: "People go where jobs are. It's as simple as that."
With the help of Manchester College, City of Liverpool is paying for two new state-of-the-art labs in AI and cyber-security for its cohort of students to use. Ms Bowker suggested it could help answer the question of whether the UK could rival the US and China in having so-called 'sovereign AI' capability.
Drawing on his time as Greater Manchester mayor, Prime Minister Andy Burnham champions devolved skills funding, vocational pathways from age 14, and closer employer-college partnerships. Meanwhile Labour grandee Alan Milburn's upcoming review into youth NEETs (not in education, employment, or training) could further strengthen the sector.
Ms Bowker described herself as being "philosophically, intellectually...very much in support of devolution" of powers to local leaders over post-19, and now post-16 education. She pointed out that while control of post-19 education funding has been handed to metro mayor Steve Rotheram, the actual funding itself has remained static while demand has increased.
She said: "The big issue with all of this is the geopolitical landscape is such where there's demand for so much at the moment, so where are we going to get the resources from?" She added: "If we had a proper tertiary system, I think it'd be easier for young people to access good routes with good jobs, good destinations, and for employers in the economy to have the skills they need, but we do need a tertiary system which is interlocking and connects all of that."
