U.K. Pledges $28 Billion to Build Carbon Capture Industry

The new U.K. government has pledged almost ￡22 billion (US$28.8 billion) in funding for the country's two leading carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives in the north of England.

The funding will be used to establish the U.K.'s first carbon capture industry through funding for the East Coast Cluster initiative in the Teesside and Humber regions of northeast England and the HyNet initiative in the Merseyside area of northwest England and north Wales. The regions form the heartland of the U.K.'s industry, which is responsible for most of the country's CO2 emissions across a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, steelmaking, shipping, chemicals, refining and cement making. Each of the clusters boast a large number of specific CCS projects that will be first to benefit from the new funding. They are expected to create 4,000 new jobs, along with a further 50,000 jobs in the wider pipeline, while also attracting up to ￡8 billion (US$8.7 billion) in private investment.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "We're reigniting our industrial heartlands by investing in the industry of the future. Today's announcement will give industry the certainty it needs -- committing to 25 years of funding in this groundbreaking technology -- to help deliver jobs, kickstart growth, and repair this country once and for all. Today's announcement confirms up to ￡21.7 billion of funding available, over 25 years, to make the U.K. an early leader in two growing global sectors, CCUS and hydrogen, to be allocated between these two clusters. In the week in which Britain became the first industrialized nation to end its 150-year usage of coal to produce power, the nation now begins a new era of clean energy technology. The U.K. has enough capacity to store 200 years' worth of emissions - making CCUS a revolutionary method in tackling the climate crisis and helping industry to decarbonise."

The East Coast Cluster comprises two industrial regions of the U.K. that are situated adjacent to suitable CO2 storage sites in the North Sea. Together they could capture and store up to 27 million tonnes of CO2 annually by the mid-2030s, accounting for almost half of all the emissions from the U.K.'s industrial clusters. The projects include carbon capture and transport across power stations and industrial sites as well as four major hydrogen projects: Equinor's (NYSE:EQNR ) (Stavanger) Hydrogen to Humber (H2H) Saltend, H2NorthEast by Kellas Midstream , Uniper's (Dusseldorf, Germany) Humber Hub Blue Project and H2Teesside by BP plc (NYSE:BP ) (London, England).

BP's Louise Kingham, senior vice president Europe and head of country, U.K., said: "This announcement represents another step forward for the Northern Endurance Partnership and East Coast Cluster. Major projects like these have the potential to help stimulate economic growth -- supporting thousands of jobs, helping U.K. companies prosper through the vast supply chains involved and creating the infrastructure to help major industrial companies with their decarbonisation plans."

The Hynet initiative will provide the infrastructure to produce, transport and store low-carbon hydrogen across the northwest and north Wales. It will also develop the infrastructure to capture, transport and lock away CO2 emissions from industry in undersea caverns. The work will involve upgrading existing infrastructure, as well as developing new infrastructure across underground pipelines, hydrogen production plants and offshore storage facilities. Commenting on the funding pledge, David Parkin, chair of the HyNet Alliance, said: "HyNet was formed to meet the demands of industry wanting to decarbonise to deliver sustainable products and compete in the global low carbon economy. We need to decarbonise, not by de-industrialising, but by investing in the industries that we rely on for the everyday products in our lives -- from the glass bottles we use for our food and drink to the cement we use to build roads and buildings."

Industrial Info is tracking 48 projects under the Hynet umbrella worth US$3.7 billion in investment. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can click here for the reports.

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