Becky Rix is Marketing Director at Roadgas Limited, a local Small / Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that supplies compressed and liquified green gas refuelling infrastructure and equipment for dispensing alternative fuels into the heavy transport sector.
Becky was appointed to the D2N2 LEP Board in 2021 with a remit to focus the Board’s attention on their low carbon agenda and to drive green growth within the D2N2 region. Becky co-chairs D2N2 LEP’s Low Carbon Growth Group and was a founding member of the D2N2 LEP Hydrogen Taskforce.
In this article, Becky explains why Roadgas is proud to be a member of the East Midlands Hydrogen Consortium and shares her thoughts on the importance of low carbon growth for our region’s future.
Becky said:
“Roadgas supplies compressed and liquified gas refuelling infrastructure and equipment for dispensing alternative fuels in to the industrial and transport sectors. Our focus is on the use of green gases – biomethane and biogas currently – and, in the future, hydrogen, to drive net zero emissions and decarbonisation plans for UK fleets, in light of the UK Government’s Net Zero 2050 targets.
We’re very supportive of working towards fuel switching to hydrogen because that makes transport net zero at tailpipe. However, currently, this is not straightforward. There are several barriers to doing so right now including vehicle availability, hydrogen availability, customers’ confidence and issues around safety. We believe that these barriers will ultimately be overcome and we view the East Midlands Consortium as a key vehicle to enable that change. We were very proud to join the East Midlands Hydrogen Consortium in March this year and Roadgas will remain a member for the foreseeable future. We particularly support Commitment #6 of East Midlands Hydrogen to ‘Accelerate hydrogen freight decarbonisation’. We see this as being a strong strategic fit for our business and we want to maintain the momentum.
East Midlands Hydrogen resonates with our business because it has grown from the grassroots up. The collaboration was born out of the D2N2 LEP Hydrogen Taskforce Advisory Board that I was a founding member of. I’m pleased to say that the progress we made through the work of the Hydrogen Taskforce, led by some of the largest businesses in our region, paved the way for the establishment of East Midlands Hydrogen.
The opportunity for my business to join East Midlands Hydrogen, the largest inland hydrogen cluster in the UK with a unique collaboration of over 60 public and private partners and businesses, large and small, across all aspects of the hydrogen value chain, was a given. I believe this will be a game-changer for our region. The sheer potential of this is unprecedented. We have a truly unique cluster of energy generation sites, poised to drive our green energy revolution. 20 major employers have said they need more than ten terawatt-hours of hydrogen per year to decarbonise their operations and Consortium members are working to ensure as much of that is generated and stored in the East Midlands as possible.
I’m very excited about the opportunity for hydrogen in our region. The hydrogen economy is a sector that’s moving through its innovation and development stage at the moment, providing the potential for at least 9,000 high-skilled jobs and opportunities in a wide range of organisations across our region over the coming years. As the Director of an SME, I’m passionate about promoting and supporting smaller organisations in the engineering sector and its supply chain, as we don’t always get the focus that the larger global engineering companies in our region receive.
I’d like to see low carbon remaining high on the agenda. Our region is uniquely placed, through our nuclear and hydrogen prowess, to lead the move to a low carbon economic revolution and we’re investing in the skills and careers support needed for those green jobs and businesses of the future.
Now that we have devolution in our region with our new Mayor, Claire Ward, and our new East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) in place, this will allow us to be a little more independent in our thinking. I’d love to see us blazing a trail for hydrogen: wouldn’t it be great to have a train from Nottingham to Derby or Chesterfield, that’s powered by hydrogen?
East Midlands Hydrogen’s commitment #5 ‘Grow our hydrogen education and skills offering’ is also very relevant and we wholeheartedly support this. I’m passionate about the importance of skills, diversity and inclusion, because at the end of the day, business is all about people. Our region’s going to need over 27,000 engineers in the next 10 to 15 years so low carbon skills, particularly nuclear and hydrogen, will be highly sought-after. It’s absolutely critical that we work with our local schools to explain and promote the opportunities coming on-stream and the skills that we will need to develop to fulfil these roles.
I think the future looks very positive for Roadgas. We are fully focused on decarbonisation, one of the key priorities for our region and we’ll continue to champion this agenda. In my view, we could and should make the East Midlands the hydrogen centre for the UK and I’m confident that East Midlands Hydrogen, with the support of our new East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward, will gear up to lead the way.”
About Becky Rix
Becky Rix is Marketing Director at Roadgas Limited. Becky has significant international marketing experience with blue chip companies such as Bass plc, Inchcape and DHL Worldwide Express working on both the client and agency side of her profession.
Becky drives all communications across the business including monitoring the company’s brand across all channels, as well as having responsibility for the company’s online presence, PR, advertising, wider industry relations and networking.
Becky has responsibility for delivering the Roadgas Sustainability Plan 2021-2026 as one of the company’s seven pillars for growth (RGL Strategic Plan 2023-2027) as well as the day to day responsibility for HR, Training and Quality across the business
About Roadgas
Roadgas supplies compressed & liquified gas refuelling infrastructure and equipment for dispensing alternative fuels in the industrial and transport sectors. The company’s focus for growth concentrates on the use of green gases – biomethane, biogas and ultimately hydrogen to drive net zero emissions and decarbonisation plans for UK fleets in light of the UK Government’s Net Zero 2050 targets.
Roadgas is supported by a progressive leadership team. The company has a strong strategic vision for growth in the next 5-7 years and is excited to be at the forefront of the UK’s green recovery.
About East Midlands Hydrogen
D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, Cadent, and some of the region’s leading organisations such as Uniper, Toyota, Midlands Engine, East Midlands Freeport and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership have formed an industrial partnership called East Midlands Hydrogen. Co-Chaired by Will Morlidge of D2N2 LEP and Sally Brewis of Cadent, the East Midlands Hydrogen Consortium is set to become the UK’s largest inland hydrogen cluster and will accelerate the development of, and attract investment to, the rapidly growing hydrogen ecosystem in our region.
Unlike other major hydrogen clusters which are coastal, East Midlands Hydrogen is right in the heart of the country. It brings together an intensive cluster of hydrogen demand forecasts from around 70 industrial sites in the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and northern Leicestershire regions, who are asking for more than 10TWh of hydrogen by 2040 in total, to enable site decarbonisation. For these sites alone, access to low carbon hydrogen would enable carbon savings of 1.9 million tonnes per year, the equivalent of gas-related carbon emissions from 860,000 homes.
D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) covers the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire region, convening the businesses, universities, colleges and local authorities in our region to drive low carbon, economic growth and productivity, skills & careers, inclusion and delivery excellence. The D2N2 LEP team and functions will transition into the East Midlands Combined County Authority during 2024.
For media enquiries, contact:
Nicola Swaney
Head of External Affairs, D2N2 LEP
Nicola.Swaney@d2n2lep.org
