The Solent Cluster welcomes £20bn Spring Budget carbon capture announcement

The Solent Cluster has welcomed Spring Budget announced of £20 billion investment into UK carbon capture and storage (CCS) as part of a clean energy reset.

In the Spring Budget last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out £20 billion investment across the next 20 years in domestic carbon capture and low carbon energy, with the goal of storing 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.

This will benefit projects like The Solent Cluster, which is working on a project with the potential to capture up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to taking 3.75 million cars off the road and a third of the government’s target.

Anne-Marie Mountifield, director of The Solent Cluster and chief executive of Cluster founding member The Solent Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The Solent Cluster team is pleased with the Chancellor’s announcement in Wednesday’s budget and as we have the potential to capture and store a third of the government’s annual ambitions for CCS, the impact of this for the Solent region and beyond is significant.

“It will make a large contribution to attracting significant investment into levelling up the Solent region, as well as creating new jobs and growth.”

Forty percent of all industrial CO2 ever captured has been successfully captured by one of the Cluster’s founding members ExxonMobil. The Cluster is actively developing its own CCS solution, drawing on the global expertise of ExxonMobil at its site in Fawley, Hampshire.

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Anne-Marie continued: “Through new hydrogen production facilities, the Solent can lead the way in creating low carbon fuels for the maritime industries, on which much of our region’s economic prosperity depends.

“We are currently awaiting the announcement of Track-2 cluster funding from the government as it works towards its requirement of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

“This will enable us to deploy our decarbonisation plans which, as well as offering the prospect of lower carbon energy for homes, businesses, public buildings and transport, will also help decarbonise industries in and beyond the Solent region by capturing, processing and storing their emissions.”

The government expects that support for Track-2 clusters may include access to capital support through the CCS Infrastructure Fund and Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, and revenue support mechanisms through technology-specific business models.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, said: “Without government support, the average household energy bill would have hit almost £4,300 this year, which is why we stepped in to save a typical household £1,300 on their energy bills this winter.

“We don’t want to see high bills like this again, it’s time for a clean energy reset. That is why we are fully committing to nuclear power in the UK, backing a new generation of small modular reactors, and investing tens of billions in clean energy through carbon capture.

“This plan will help drive energy bills down for households across the country and improve our energy security whilst delivering on one of our five promises to grow the economy.”

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