Communities, industries and businesses are to come together in a bid to deliver carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen in support of net zero goals.
On 13 May, the Scottish Cluster was established as a “unification and collaboration” of industries, communities and businesses in Scotland, calling on the Scottish and UK governments to deliver actions necessary for CCS, hydrogen and other low carbon technologies to enable the decarbonisation of industry and facilitate a low carbon economy. They have also launched the “Back the Scottish Cluster” campaign in support of this aim.
It brings key stakeholders and key industries across Scotland together, along with academia, communities and the public sector to create a unified voice, advocating for CCS, hydrogen and low carbon technologies in Scotland’s decarbonisation pathway. It has a clear decarbonisation roadmap in place, along with access to key infrastructure and a series of CO2 reduction projects aligned with net zero goals.
The cluster has the potential to address up to 9mn tonnes of CO2 that current come from Scotland’s top emitting sectors, while establishing a substantial CO2 transportation and storage solution, including shipping CO2 through Scottish Ports. This will be key in reducing industrial emissions from areas around the UK and as far as Europe which are in need of access to such facilities.
The project partners from the Acorn CCS and Hydrogen Project are also involved in the cluster and it is through this project that Scotland has unique CO2 storage potential. Come the mid-2020s, Acorn’s CCS and hydrogen systems will offer crucial backbone infrastructure to the cluster and this will be able to scale as demand to store CO2 grows. This will cost effectively transform Scotland’s carbon intensive industries, resulting in a fairer, more resilient economy, while sustaining and creating low carbon jobs UK-wide.
