The government is committing £9.4bn of public cash to the development of carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects, including new support for the Viking and Acorn clusters in Humberside and Aberdeenshire, respectively.
The funding was announced as part of the Spending Review, presented to parliament by the chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves today, 11 June.
“To back British industries, pioneering work in carbon capture, usage and storage will take place,” Reeves told Parliament.
“Last year we announced funding for two sites, one on Merseyside and one in Teesside, where we are building the world’s first commercial-scale CCUS plant.
“Today I can announce support for the Acorn project in Aberdeenshire to support Scotland’s transition from oil and gas to low-carbon technology – a challenge and an opportunity […] We are also backing the Viking project in Humberside.”
More details were revealed in government documents published soon after her speech, which said: “Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) clusters play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and clean power and secure thousands of good, skilled jobs in our industrial heartlands.”
Last year the government said it would pledge up to £21.7bn to CCUS projects over the next 25 years, with the first projects set to be the East Coast Cluster on Teesside and the HyNet hub in the north west and north Wales. These were denoted as Track-1 projects.
The Spending Review document commits the first tranche of this sum, saying: “The government is providing increased backing to UK CCUS by allocating £9.4bn in capital budgets over the Spending Review period.
“This will maximise deployment to fill the storage capacity of the East Coast Cluster and HyNet Cluster.”
Acorn and Viking had been earmarked as Track-2 CCUS projects and the Spending Review confirms that they are the next to be developed, saying: “The government is announcing its support for the Acorn and Viking clusters and providing the development funding to advance their delivery.
“A final investment decision will be taken later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability.”
Map of current planned CCUS clusters in Britain
Two central East Coast Cluster CCUS projects were given the green light at the end of last year. These included NEP, the CO2 transportation and storage provider for the cluster, and NZT Power, the world’s first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and storage.
In April, the government gave the official green light for the HyNet cluster, an extensive carbon capture and storage network featuring 61km of pipeline between developments that will produce and distribute low-carbon hydrogen across the North West and North Wales, while capturing and storing industrial CO2 emissions.
Last year NCE spoke to WSP, the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, Aecom and Spirit Energy about what the UK’s carbon capture push means for civil engineering.
Minister welcomes ‘investment over decline’
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has responsibility for deploying state financial support for CCUS.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “This Spending Review is about investing in Britain’s renewal, so you and your family are better off.
“Today the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made their choice: investment over decline.
“For energy and climate change, this settlement provides for the most significant expansion of homegrown clean energy in British history.
“With these investments, we will take back control of our energy to protect family finances.”
CCUS projects welcome investment ahead of FID
Harbour Energy owns the Viking CCS project.
Harbour Energy executive vice president, global CCS Graeme Davies said: “The Spending Review today sends a strong signal that Track-2 and Viking CCS are an infrastructure-led economic growth priority in this Parliament.
“We will work with Government on the critical steps needed to progress Viking CCS towards a final investment decision, following our completion of Front-End Engineering Design and approval of the onshore pipeline Development Consent Order earlier this year.”
Acorn general manager Nic Braley said: “We welcome today’s announcement in the Comprehensive Spending Review, confirming UK Government development funding to advance the project towards Final Investment Decision (FID) in this Parliament – an important step for the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries in Scotland.
“The government has a vital role to play in the success of this project and we will continue to work closely with them to discuss the detail of this announcement and how we proceed.
“We look forward to developing the next phase of the project which will require both short-term and sustained, long-term commitment from government to enable FID.
“Acorn will support economic growth, create and safeguard tens of thousands of jobs and deliver the much-needed CCS infrastructure to support a successful energy transition for our communities.”
Energy sector says 30,000 jobs could be generated
Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) represents the interests of the fossil fuel and renewable energy companies operating on the UK’s continental shelf.
OEUK CEO David Whitehouse said: “The Chancellor was right to say that energy security is national security and also to recognise the need to reduce reliance on overseas oil and gas. Domestic production is the path to energy security and economic growth.
“The support for the next phase of carbon storage projects in Scotland and Humberside is welcome, and an important step towards final investment decisions later in this parliament.
“Together Viking and Acorn have the potential to unlock over £25bn of investment by 2035, creating over 30,000 jobs at peak construction,
“These projects will provide the pathway to support the decarbonisation of UK industries and are critical to the government's clean power objectives. We will continue to work with government to detail the long-term support required to deliver these projects and unlock the UK's wider CCS ambitions
“We agree with the chancellor that it matters where we make things and who makes them. Homegrown energy production which will protect security and jobs, must be at the heart of our industrial strategy.”
Anti-CCS campaign says investment is ‘dangerous distraction’
Scrap Carbon Capture is a new campaign opposing the deployment of carbon capture and storage infrastructure.
Scrap Carbon Capture lead Andrew Boswell said: “Pumping more billions into more carbon capture clusters is a dangerous distraction. It prevents real action on the climate by locking us into expensive, high-carbon infrastructure while renewables sit ready to replace it.
“And the public pays the price - £9.4bn today – to actively worsen the climate crisis whilst the Government turns a blind eye to the dangerous environmental risk of methane leaks in the gas supply chain.”
In February this year, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee said it was “left unconvinced” that CCUS is “the silver bullet government is betting on” to achieve net zero, following its inquiry into the technology and the government’s major commitment to it.
資料來源：https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/spending-review-9-4bn-for-carbon-capture-usage-and-storage-projects-11-06-2025/
