Aberdeen’s claim that it should become the seat of any new national energy institute seems a no-brainer.

Chancellor Gordon Brown was less than clear when he said he wanted the institute to be a virtual entity rather than a bricks and mortar-style university.

However, even the Open University, which would surely qualify as a virtual university in that its students are dispersed all over the country, has a not inconsiderable bricks and mortar administration centre in Milton Keynes.

What we we do know is that the government has a vision of the UK leading the world in the next generation of energy technologies.

We also know that the world’s leading energy companies are already concentrated in Aberdeen.

No matter that these companies are, at present, primarily concerned with the extraction of oil and gas.

As companies they have a vested interest in surviving the coming energy crunch as much as any individual concerned by the threat of global warming.

To survive, these companies, with the exception of Exxon Mobil which does not believe global warming is a reality, need to find new ways to deliver energy from alternative sources to the world’s populations.

Many are already quite far down that road.

Carbon capture, offshore windfarms and even hydrogen energy are all being developed and implemented in and around Aberdeen.

If the UK is to position itself as Europe’s powerhouse in the coming decades by taking advantage of its abundance of wind and wave energy it needs buy-in from that third vital resource – know-how. And that is to be found in abundance in and around Aberdeen.