Increasing the use of clean energy is vital – the recent UK budget announces a number of measures to support this transition. A selection of the highlights, for us, include:
- The ‘Energy Innovation Programme’ will be more than doubled, the aim being to boost research and innovation so that new technologies may drive down the cost of achieving net zero.
- The ‘CCS Infrastructure Fund’ will provide at least £800m to support the establishment of at least two CCS sites in the UK, one by mid-decade a second by 2030.
- Support, through consumer subsidies, will be given for at least one privately financed gas CCS power station by 2030.
The report also gives recognition to a crucial point – whilst renewables are likely to become the UK’s primary source of power, their intermittency will require the support nuclear, gas with CCS and hydrogen.
In particular, we welcome the news that the economies of scale afforded to wind and solar, made possible by government incentives, may now start to be applied to and realised in carbon capture. CCS can unlock flexible low carbon power and decarbonise many industrial processes, as well as providing options for negative emissions at scale. We see it as a key component of future Gas2Wire projects, driving further the efficiencies that we intend to deliver in the meantime.