Energy Minister Lord Callanan has told how the Humber is critical to his portfolio’s ambition after spending a day in the region.
An early morning tour of Drax was followed by a drive to Port of Immingham, and then on to Hull, taking in the corridor of opportunity offered by carbon capture use and storage.
And the politician with the responsibility for the key decarbonisation tool for heavy industry, explained why the self-styled Energy Estuary was overlooked as the potential CCUS forerunner, while also promising that “lessons will be learned” when it comes to offshore wind support.
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Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, heard of the hunger from Humber Energy Board to start the Net Zero journey where the emissions are at their highest in the 海角视频, having been walked through a £15 billion portfolio of plans to clean up processes.
Urgency was stressed to the key figure who started his political career more than 40 years ago as a county councillor in Tyne and Wear.
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Of his visit which culminated with the NP11 group of LEPs meeting at Reckitt’s Hull facility, he said: “It has been fantastic, I have been to the Humber many times before, I’m from the North myself, and it is great to see the enthusiasm of MPs, of local councils, of all the really innovative businesses, to help us on the decarbonisation and energy security agenda. It has been fantastic to see.”
Drax Power Station, sitting close to the River Humber’s formation, close to where the Ouse and Aire meet, was a logical start, as the western point for the grand plan for the dual transportation of captured carbon and hydrogen for fuel switching.
Lord Callanan said: “Drax is part of the eco-system of the region, one of our biggest energy producers. Drax alone is responsible for something like 6 per cent of the entire 海角视频 electrical system when it is running at full pelt, they are going to be one of the key components of any future CCUS programme, and already it has converted to biomass.They have some really exciting plans with its BECCS system, and if we manage to capture emissions from biomass, that is of course negative emissions, which helps the 海角视频 and our zero target.”
On why it wasn’t first off the rank, with the complexity and scale seen as a potential barrier, he said: “It gets quite complicated, there are a number of different tracks, we had Track One, and took a pragmatic decision on the availability of storage, on what could and could not deliver the biggest CO2 potential in the shortest possible time, so therefore we selected two clusters, one in Teesside - East Coast Cluster - and one, Hynet (North West), however that was never the limit of our ambitions, and in July the Prime Minister announced two further clusters would be in so-called Track Two, one of which is Acorn in Scotland, and one is Viking here in Humberside.
"We are just about to launch discussions with the transport and storage system operator here, basically the pipelines and the store out in the sea, to see from a technical point of view exactly what storage capacity there is, and when we have ascertained that then we start to speak to the number of emitters to see how we can fill up that capacity. That’s the process,and to pay for all of this, the Treasury has allocated £20 billion of funding, so in a tight public spending environment we’re hugely grateful for that, and we need to make sure we spend that money and get the best value possible for the taxpayer, the bill payer.”
Of the region’s role in its development, he said: “There is a huge amount of potential for it in the Humber across a range of traditional industries; across the steel industry, power industry, refineries and some new incoming industries, such as hydrogen production plants, there’s a huge potential there. The thing about CCUS is it is not just about decarbonising existing manufacturing and production operations, there is huge potential for new businesses to come in as well, attracted by the fact they can produce in a zero carbon environment.”
And while sat just yards from the expanding Siemens Gamesa plant, attention turned to offshore wind, with the subsidy price having been found too low to attract bids last time out, as inflation sent costs soaring.
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Of September’s latest auction round (AR5), Lord Callanan said: “There weren’t any bids for offshore wind but there was 3.7GW of capacity allocated under onshore wind, geothermal, solar. We’re looking at another round in six months time, and many of the bidders can bid again there. We’re looking at the allocations and clearly we want to learn the lessons from the AR5 round, but there is still a steady pipeline of turbines being installed. We installed 300 turbines in the 海角视频 last year, so there is no let-up on the decarbonisation agenda or in the space of renewables investment.
“There’s a pipeline of 77GW-worth of projects coming forward in various stages of planning and consenting and investment decisions. There’s a new round in six months time, and we will certainly learn the lessons from AR5. The Humber is a leader, developments are hugely successful and contributing greatly to the 海角视频’s generating capacity.”
Reflecting across his entire scope, he added: “The Humber is critical. A great traditional, industrial area with fantastic skills, great people, and the region will continue to contribute to our agenda, and the government will support it in doing so.”
NP11 leader on the opportunity for the North
Clare Hayward MBE, chair of the NP11, hosted a meeting at Reckitt with representatives from local enterprise partnerships across the North.
Lord Callanan, who served in local government for more than a decade before being elected as an MEP, listened intently to the issues raised.
The Cheshire and Warrington LEP leader said: “What was really important was engaging the minister with opportunities across the North of England for Net Zero projects.
“We talked about hydrogen, carbon capture, wind farms, the need for enhancing the capacity of the grid, and we talked about the importance of connectivity, and the importance of confidence and clarity in elements of regulatory policy, so businesses have certainty. That is hugely important for what is a massive opportunity, as is how we all collaborate to deal with that. That was really the main thing.”
Of the setting for the meeting, with a desire to regularly welcome ministerial presence, she added: “The Humber has a huge role to play, and we had some really big industry players in the region, the likes of Drax and Reckitt, but we also heard from the Oh Yes! Net Zero campaign, and how it is bringing in SMEs. They need to be involved as they will play a huge role in enabling us to deliver.”