The head of the Scottish government, First Minister Humza Yousaf, has urged the UK Government to grant approval for the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in order to facilitate Scotland’s acceleration towards sustainable energy.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has made a commitment to implement carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in two industrial clusters by the middle of the 2020s and an additional four clusters by 2030.
In October 2021, in Track 1 of the implementation, two of these clusters were chosen by the UK government—the East Coast Cluster and HyNet—and they are expected to be operational by 2025. The Acorn project, also known as the Scottish Cluster, was left as a backup option, to huge disappointment for the Scottish administration.
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While visiting the Peterhead Power Station, which is included in the Acorn project plans, the First Minister used the opportunity to emphasize the Scottish Government’s complete dedication to endorsing the Acorn project.
Additionally, the First Minister called upon the UK Government to clarify its intentions and eliminate any uncertainties for both investors and stakeholders in regard to the project development plans.
He shared: “Despite the UK Government confirming in March that Acorn is ‘best-placed’ to meet the eligibility to be awarded Track-2 status, which would allow access to financial support from the UK Government, they continue to fail to provide a clear timetabled solution for the next stages of the process. This is entirely unacceptable and layers further uncertainty on top of never-ending delays, which are impacting investor confidence and which compromise our climate-change commitments and just-transition ambitions.”
Set to be located in Aberdeenshire, the project will collect CO2 emissions from industrial operations throughout the nation and safely deposit them under the North Sea. The project might be approved for the second phase of development expected to start by 2030.
Read more: Acorn Project To Boost UK Carbon Capture And Storage Market
