12th August 2022 – The East Coast Cluster (ECC), a world leading initiative to decarbonise the industrial heartlands of the Humber and Teesside, moved one step closer to deployment today as the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced 14 projects within the cluster have been shortlisted to proceed to a due diligence stage.
There is an unparalleled and diverse mix of low-carbon projects that will be enabled by the ECC including industrial carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen production, negative emissions power, and power with carbon capture. All these technologies are essential for the UK to meet its net zero targets and will play a central role in establishing the Teesside and Humber regions as globally competitive hubs for green jobs, products, and services.
In March 2022, 25 projects within the ECC that submitted bids as part of Phase-2 of the government’s carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) cluster sequencing process were deemed to have met the eligibility criteria to proceed to the evaluation stage. Today’s announcement confirms that 14 of these projects will now move into a due diligence stage.
The shortlisted projects in today’s announcement are:
Power CCUS
Hydrogen
Industrial carbon capture (ICC)
The Government is also due to provide further details in the coming weeks on the evaluation and selection process it intends to run for greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies such as the bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project at Drax Power Station.
The ECC was selected as a Track -1 cluster by BEIS in Phase-1 of the cluster sequencing process in October 2021- which means it is set to become one of the UK’s first two CCUS clusters, with the potential to transport and securely store up to 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year by 2030 – around 50% of all UK industrial cluster emissions.
The ECC could create and support an average of 25,000 jobs per year between 2023 and 2050, with approximately 41,000 jobs at the project’s peak in 2026. These skilled jobs in exciting new industries can play an important part in the levelling up of the UK.
The ECC is enabled by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) comprising bp, Equinor, National Grid Ventures, Shell and TotalEnergies. Together the partnership will develop the infrastructure needed to transport CO2 from across the Humber and Teesside to an offshore storage facility in the Southern North Sea.
Quotes
Andy Lane, Managing Director, Northern Endurance Partnership, and the East Coast Cluster, said; “The East Coast Cluster will enable an unparalleled and diverse mix of low-carbon projects that will create and support thousands of skilled jobs in exciting new industries. I congratulate the projects who have been shortlisted today for potential first connection to the East Coast Cluster. We will continue to work closely with these projects and all of our potential carbon capture partners as we continue the journey to making the UK a world leader in CCUS”.
Notes to editors
The East Coast Cluster unites the Humber and Teesside with infrastructure to decarbonise industry and establish a platform for economic growth.
The East Coast Cluster is enabled by the Northern Endurance Partnership – a collaboration between bp, Equinor, National Grid Ventures, Shell and TotalEnergies, with bp leading as operator.
The East Coast Cluster represents the UK’s biggest opportunity to:
