The UK Government has confirmed Hanson’s Padeswood carbon capture and storage project, based in north Wales, UK, as one of eight projects to be taken forward to negotiations to form the basis of the UK’s new carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) clusters. This announcement follows the confirmation in the government’s spring budget of GBP20bn (US$25bn) investment for research into CCUS.
Hanson UK is constructing a carbon capture facility at the Padeswood cement works, through a GBP400m investment making it the UK's first carbon capture-enabled cement works. The project is expected to capture 800,000tpa of CO2.
After decades of reliance on importing expensive, foreign fossil fuels, the UK government is delivering a radical shift in the country’s energy system towards cleaner, more affordable energy sources to power more of Britain from Britain. New green technologies, set to be developed and deployed in Wales, including CCUS and hydrogen, will spearhead the government’s new Energy Security Plan.
As part of this plan, the government is also announcing GBP160m of new funding for pilot projects to build the port infrastructure needed to support further floating offshore wind, through the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme. This scheme will support investment in the infrastructure needed to meet the UK’s ambition of up to 5GW of floating offshore wind by 2030, supported by a substantial pipeline of potential projects in the Celtic Sea.
