Britain signs deals for carbon capture projects creating 500 jobs
The government announced on Thursday that Britain had signed contracts for two commercial carbon dioxide projects, which will generate 500 skilled jobs.
Britain has set a target of achieving net-zero emission by 2050. It has also said that carbon capture and storage will be required to reduce emissions from energy-intensive industries.
The projects will be Heidelberg Materials' Padeswood Cement Works in North Wales and Encyclis’s Protos Waste-to-Energy facility in Ellesmere Port, in the Northwest of England. They will capture total of 1.2 millions metric tons CO2 per year.
The emissions from the plants are captured and transported by pipeline to Eni's Liverpool Bay Project.
Heidelberg Materials announced that its project will be the first carbon capture facility in the world to enable completely decarbonised production of cement. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of this year, with first net zero cement being produced by 2029.
In a government statement, Simon Willis, the CEO of Heidelberg Materials UK, said: "Our constructive partnership has allowed us to achieve this major milestone. This is fantastic news not only for us but for the entire industry."
The Government did not provide any financial details about the contracts. However, the funding comes from the 12.65 billion pounds (9.4 billion pounds) that the government has pledged for carbon capture technology during the period of spending review announced in June.
CCS is the process of capturing emissions from industry and power plants to store them underground. Although the technology is available, projects have been slow to get off the ground due to costs.
(source: Reuters)
