Government commits ￡22bn to first carbon capture projects

Earlier this quarter, Prime Minister Keir Starmer officially confirmed the government’s ￡22 billion investment in Carbon Capture and Storage on Friday 3rd October.

The announcement was made at HyNet partner Encirc 's factory in Ellesmere Port alongside Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP and Secretary of State for Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP.

The investment will focus on two carbon capture clusters in Merseyside and Teesside, aiming to create 4,000 direct jobs and support 50,000 jobs in the long term.

Starmer positioned the investment as part of a strategy to "reignite our industrial heartlands,” framing the decision as one between “investment or decline.”

“I’ve always believed that clean energy is a golden opportunity for our country, a chance to bring security and hope to working people, relight the fires of renewal in those areas that got hit so hard by deindustrialisation.”

“For our energy intensive industries, like glass making, or cement, or steel, or ceramics... the security that the future belongs to them”.

Read more.

Key projects move forward

A number of HyNet partners have projects that have been through local planning examinations over recent weeks:

The first-of-its-kind carbon capture plant is set to prevent around 380,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, enabling fully sustainable treatment of unrecyclable residual household and commercial waste at Protos Energy Recovery Facility (ERF), which is currently being constructed near Ellesmere Port by joint owners ENCYCLIS and Biffa . Capturing that amount of carbon is estimated to be equivalent to taking around 200,000 cars off the road.

Owen Michaelson, CEO at Encyclis, said: “We’re delighted by the council’s decision, which represents another significant step forward on our important journey to deliver carbon capture at commercial scale. This project will contribute to regeneration and jobs in the North West, stimulate green growth throughout the supply chain and unlock opportunities to be a global leader in carbon capture. Our goal is to prove that we can continue to deliver a vital public sanitation service while cutting the CO2 emissions that contribute to climate change. We thank the local authority for its careful and efficient consideration of our application and recognising the strategic importance of this project.”

enfinium have revealed that their Park Adfer carbon capture plant has reached the shortlisting stage of the HyNet Track 1 Expansion process after passing the deliverability assessment.

Capture Your Potential

HyNet and partners Progressive Energy , Encirc and EET Fuels , have been taking part in a regional wide set of careers fairs for young people across Cheshire and Warrington. these have been developed through the The Cheshire & Warrington Pledge Partnership , bringing together the regions employers in order to highlight careers to young people.

HyNet and partners exhibited to over 2,000 people, across events in Ellesmere Port, Chester, Macclesfield and Northwich, to college students and primarily high school age pupils, as well as the general public.

At these events we were able to showcase our latest piece of collateral, the ‘Capture Your Potential’ booklet. This is a lightweight intro into the HyNet project, what's going to be built, loose information on roles coming and where locally to be looking for apprenticeships and degrees.

Read more.

If you have any questions, thoughts or would like to find out more, please do get in touch at [email protected].