A new carbon capture investment in Scotland is going to help the country decarbonize its economy and reach the Paris Agreement net zero goal. The Scottish Government’s Emerging Energy Technologies Fund has decided to inject £80 million ($108 million) into the Scottish Cluster carbon capture project after previously declaring not to award it.
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The fund along with support from the UK Government will aim to see the development of “three CCS clusters for the price of two” so it granted the Scottish Cluster clear and definitive Track-1 status in its carbon capture sequencing process.
The Energy Secretary Michael Matheson had a virtual meeting with UK Government’s Minister for Energy Greg Hands on Thursday. He set out the funding offer and pressed the UK Government to provide certainty for the Scottish Cluster.
During the meeting Mr Matheson expressed his disappointment with the previous decision made last year not to award the project with Track-1 status.
“Delaying or halting the deployment of the Scottish Cluster has serious consequences, including jeopardizing the industrial decarbonization of Scotland and our just transition to net zero, creating an un-level playing field across the UK, and endangering Scottish and UK-wide net zero targets,” Michael Matheson added.
The announcement of £80 million of funding towards the carbon capture and storage project will continue and accelerate its progress and the deployment of the carbon capture technology.
The first phase of the development of the Scottish Cluster is between now and 2030 and should involve the cumulative storage of 25.5 million tons of CO2 emissions with a goal of 500 million tons by 2050. It will also include the capture and sequestration of at least nine UK CO2 emitting sites spanning from a variety of sectors including industrial sites and power generation plants.
The project will also include the generation of hydrogen and the deployment of direct air capture (DAC) technology. 8 of the CO2 sources should become operational by 2027 – two of them are from the gas terminals at the St Fergus Gas Complex, SSE and Equinor’s Peterhead Carbon Capture Power Station.
Around 1 million tons of CO2 per year should be stored from the INEOS and Petroineos sites at Grangemouth and from the first large-scale DAC facility of its kind in Europe with a targeted location at North East Scotland.
The Scottish cluster along with the other two awarded carbon capture projects in the UK at large-scale is committed to achieving permanent storage of CO2 emissions to help Scotland and the UK in its mission to decarbonize the economy that is currently emitting large amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gasses.
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