NECCUS, the Scottish industrial decarbonisation group, has had a £1.23 million programme approved by the UK Government for plans to decarbonise large sections of Scotland’s industry in a further step forward in the drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Government funding is from the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, which is part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and will enable NECCUS (The North East Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage Alliance) and 11 partner organisations to draw up a plan detailing industry’s part in Scotland reaching its target of Net Zero carbon emissions by 2045.
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The award follows a successful roadmap design project which helped to define the geographic scope of the project and identify the important roadmap features for Scottish industry.
Government support is being matched by companies in Scotland including Cairn Energy, Chrysaor, Crown Estate Scotland, PetroIneos, SGN, Shell, and SSE Thermal all providing funds and expertise into the roadmap.
The roadmap will consider multiple carbon reducing options such as electrification, the integration of renewable energy, fuel switching to clean sources (such as hydrogen), capture of carbon emissions from energy generation and industrial processes, and negative emissions opportunities (such as capturing carbon from biogenic energy sources).
The project will create an energy system model covering key industrial sites along the Scottish East Coast, from Lothian in the South to Aberdeenshire in the North.
In total, some 30 industrial sites will be assessed which collectively emit around 80% of all the industrial emissions in Scotland. It is therefore anticipated that any net zero solutions developed here can provide infrastructure and blueprints for the whole of Scotland.
The results of the Roadmap will be crucial in informing the development of the fully integrated plans necessary to achieve net zero.
Paul Wheelhouse (Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands) said: “I am delighted to note the success of NECCUS in being awarded this significant funding to produce Scotland’s Net Zero Roadmap.
“Industrial decarbonisation is a major challenge within our energy transition, but one we must absolutely rise to meet in order to deliver on Scotland’s ambitious net-zero by 2045 target. The Roadmap will help the sector to identify the options and pathways we must follow to bring momentum for decarbonisation programmes in industry in line with this target.”
Mike Smith, NECCUS chief executive, said: “Having some of the largest industrial emitters in Scotland and key sectors of the Scottish Economy, working closely with Government and leading researchers, we firmly believe a path to industrial decarbonisation is in our grasp. To deliver it we will work with the rich vein of existing decarbonisation projects in the region, and expertise from global Net Zero projects, on which many of the partner organisations are taking a lead role.”
