Case study — International Economics Olympiad 2026

Teesside Green Hydrogen Development Zone

The brief: make an original economic case on a real national problem. Tom's answer was an investor-and-government-ready proposal to convert curtailed North Sea wind into green hydrogen for Teesside's industrial base — turning a constraint cost into an investable regional growth opportunity. It won him selection to represent the United Kingdom.

Download the full proposal About the competition

£6.87bn

15-year support envelope

Modelled, HPBM-style mechanism

£2.8bn

Electrolyser capital cost

20 units at £140m each

55.3 TWh

Modelled annual output

Subject to technical validation

£4.56bn

NPV of support

At a 5.34% discount rate

The problem

Britain can produce clean power that cannot always reach demand. Rapid offshore wind build-out creates variable supply; when the grid is constrained, that wind is curtailed — paid for, but never used. Teesside, meanwhile, has energy-intensive industry facing high costs and decarbonisation pressure. The proposal connects the two.

£1.34bn

UK network constraint spend, 2024/25

13%

GB wind outturn curtailed, 2024/25

52.0 TWh

UK offshore wind generation, 2025

86 GW

Offshore wind capacity pathway by 2035

The strategic shift: instead of moving electricity to demand, move flexible demand to renewable power.

The solution

A coordinated development zone: offshore wind connected by private wires to electrolysers, with salt-cavern storage and industrial offtake. The policy design deliberately limits the state to fixing coordination failures — price support, planning, storage, skills and demand signals — while private capital funds and builds the plants.

Offshore wind

Private wires

Electrolysers

Storage

Industry

Risk, stated plainly

A credible proposal makes the downside explicit. The submission pairs every major risk with a mitigation, and disciplines capital release against planning, offtake, technology and construction milestones.

Risk	Driver	Mitigation
Financing gap	High capex and weak early competitiveness	Temporary price support plus private-capital competition
Demand risk	Industrial customers delay switching	Binding offtake agreements and a credible carbon-price signal
Technology / delivery	Efficiency or construction slower than planned	Phased rollout, testing and performance gates
Planning / infrastructure	Connection and permitting delays	Pre-approved sites and a development corporation
Safety / environment	Hydrogen handling and construction impacts	Regulation, careful site selection and safety systems

Delivery roadmap

0–6 months

Development zone

Land, planning, offtake, governance, feasibility. Policy and investor commitment secured.

6–18 months

First wave

2–4 electrolysers plus infrastructure and storage. Prove the economics.

18–36 months

Scale

Expand generation conversion and offtake. Crowd in private capital.

Year 4+

Industrial platform

20-unit target with supply chain and skills ecosystem — a regional growth engine.

An appendix most people would hide

The proposal closes with a page titled "Model assumptions & claims requiring validation" — flagging where its own arithmetic doesn't reconcile, which figures are assumptions rather than facts, and which claims should be softened before external circulation. That instinct — stress-testing your own work before someone else does — is what we'd want any analyst to have.

Evidence base

NESO Annual Balancing Costs Report 2025 — wind curtailment of 13% of hypothetical GB wind outturn in FY2024/25.
UK Energy in Brief 2026 — offshore wind generation of 52.0 TWh in 2025.
Clean Power 2030 Action Plan — clean sources to supply at least 95% of GB generation in 2030.
Great British Energy Strategic Plan 2025 — offshore wind pathway of up to 86 GW by 2035.
Great British Energy, June 2025 — £1bn announced for offshore wind supply chains and industrial renewal.

Case study — Solid First Step, 2026

Solid First Step — helping 16–24s into meaningful work

Tom co-founded Solid First Step, a student-led startup turning the employment struggle his own generation is living into a working product.

Visit Solid First Step The problem: DWP interim report

The problem

Britain is at risk of a lost generation. The government's interim review of young people and work describes not temporary youth unemployment but deepening detachment from the labour market, a chronic problem that is getting worse, not better.

~1 million

UK 16–24s not in education, employment or training

1 in 8

Young people NEET — and rising

6 in 10

NEET young people who have never had a job, up from 4 in 10 in 2005

£300,000

Lifetime earnings lost by a 24-year-old NEET, even if they re-enter work

Source: Department for Work & Pensions, "Young people and work: interim report" (2026).

The solution

Solid First Step is a free "career command centre" for 16–24s: one joined-up journey from first profile to interview, with the next step made clear at every stage. Not another careers management system, a layer that improves application quality and confidence, built by students who have lived the problem.

Build your profile

Get matched roles

Strengthen your CV

Interview support

Alongside the tools for young people, the platform works with FE colleges and universities — AI-driven career matching, structured mentor support from industry professionals, and real-time reporting that lets careers leads see outcomes and engagement for every student.

Where it stands

An early-stage startup, stated plainly: the platform is live, subscribers are on board, and conversations with potential investors and GTM backers are underway.

Like the rigour?

Tom produced this at 17, alongside his A-levels. He's now looking for an apprenticeship where this kind of analysis is the day job.

Get in touch