James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » THE year is 2050. Wind and biomass are Britain's main energy sources. Electric cars have replaced their petrol predecessors. And an entire community is powered by a single hydrogen fuel cell.
This could be Britain's future if Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has his way. His grand vision of an "energy independent Britain" - designed to end the UK's increasing dependence on foreign coal, gas and oil - would have received more column inches but for the implosion of financial systems across the world.
Amid the din of takeovers and crashing share prices, the green challenge masquerades on the horizon as both saviour and executioner.
The threat comes from proposed EU targets that will require member states, including the UK, to produce 20% of its overall energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Critics believe that Brussels is out of touch with reality and that, in the next 10-15 years, Britain will need to rely substantially on coal to power large factories and on imported gas until the Government's new-build nuclear programme has gathered momentum.
In contrast, others say green projects can turn into potential goldmines.
In Tees Valley, hydrogen fuel technologies, the proliferation of wind turbines, home-grown bio-fuels and the conversion of biomass to electricity are all promising to generate wealth, create jobs and reduce our carbon footprint, creating thousands of green collar jobs.
This early promise hasn't jolted consumers out of their natural buying trends. Will people really swap their petrol-run BMWs for an electric car that needs recharging every 50 miles? Will they really use bio-fuel as long as they see "Unleaded" and "Diesel" at the pumps? And will they be happy to pay ã1.30 a go for low-energy light bulbs when they could buy the more powerful version at half the price... and not wait half an hour before it lights up the room?
Ultimately, consumers will decide the commercial fate of these green projects, many of which have only just evolved from the R&D chamber. Working out how to lower production cost - and therefore the price to the consumer - is essential to ensure these projects get past first base.
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