What do we do?

At 2OC we see our role as providing a stepping stone - or bridge - between the predominantly dirty energy world we live in today and the clean energy world we must move to in the next twenty years, to ensure the long term viability of our planet.

We will do this initially by helping organisations in the UK and elsewhere to harvest clean electricity from the waste energy - we call it geo-pressure energy - produced from their gas pressure reduction stations. Pursuing this strategy, we expect - by 2010 - to have installed generating capacity in the UK equivalent to 1 Gigawatt (1GW).

Combining tried and tested technology, that is already in use in Europe and North America, with our unique installation expertise, we will enable our customers to enjoy a satisfactory return on the capital invested in their clean electricity projects, measured in: financial terms, public relations terms or, more likely, a combination of the two.

Why do we do it?
By adding 1GW of clean electricity generating capacity to the UK’s power supply, we would be able to remove one million tonnes of carbon (1MtC) from the earth’s atmosphere; equivalent to the amount emitted annually by the whole of the UK’s National Health Service.

If exploited worldwide, this clean energy, geo-pressure technology could add generating capacity of between 100 and 400 GW worldwide, reducing carbon emissions by between 100 and 400 MtC.

In January 2005, Tony Blair the UK Prime Minister said in Davos that: “I also think we need to work much harder to find ways to implement the vast range of low-carbon technologies that have already been developed.”
We agree entirely. Geo-pressure energy is just the start; the technology has many more clean energy applications that could add many more GW of clean electricity generating capacity.

So who are we?
2OC was founded early in 2005 by three people: Michael Edge, Nigel Mitchell and Andrew Mercer.

Michael Edge, 2OC’s chairman, is a highly successful entrepreneur in the financial services industry. He built Chase de Vere - an independent financial advisor – from a start up into a multi-million pound business which he sold to the Bank of Ireland in 2000. He acquired London & Country, a mortgage advice business, as part of the sale and has grown it into a mult-million pound business in the intervening years.

Nigel Mitchell has worked with Michael Edge for many years and was Managing Director of Chase de Vere just prior to its sale to The Bank of Ireland.

Now success in the financial services industry is not an obvious qualification for building a green energy business but, in addition to being an outstanding entrepreneur, Michael is a passionate supporter of a number of environmental causes and has funded many tree planting schemes, in recent years, to aid the battle against climate change.

When Michael learned about the unexploited - in the UK at least - geo-pressure technology at the beginning of 2005, he decided to act. He began by appointing fellow entrepreneur, Andrew Mercer, as 2OC’s CEO. Andrew is Chairman and CEO of Footdown, the leadership mentoring company. Prior to setting up Footdown, Andrew was a successful entrepreneur in the computer software industry who sold his company to Oracle in 1998.

Michael Edge, Nigel Mitchell and Andrew Mercer all share a passion for pursuing the cause of clean energy technology development, and exploitation. They are all committed to demonstrating to the world’s political and business leaders an exciting way of tackling climate change based on current technology, and using both renewable and renewed energy.