United Kingdom – RWE will study the reduction of carbon emissions at its South Wales assets, following South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) grant.
The cluster funding comes from Innovate UK and the UK Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Industrial Decarbonization Fund.
The new studies will investigate how hydrogen and carbon capture can help reduce carbon emissions from RWE’s 2.2 gigawatts (GW) gas-fired Pembroke Power Station. They will also look into the feasibility of establishing a new green hydrogen production facility to support the SWIC partners within the industrial cluster.
SWIC consortium
SWIC is a consortium of Wales’ major industry, energy, infrastructure, law, academic and engineering organisations. The cluster successfully secured support from the public and private sector, to develop a range of partner projects. The projects include the production and use of a hydrogen supply, carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) and CO2 shipping from South Wales which would be the first CO2 shipping industry in the whole of the UK. Together these projects can decarbonize industry and power in South Wales and create a net zero emissions industrial zone by 2040.
UK’s Green Industrial Revolution
In 2020 the UK government announced a 10 Point Plan to deliver a Green Industrial Revolution to mobilize £12 billion of Government investment and create 250,000 jobs in the green economy. £1 billion out of that was pledged to create carbon capture clusters.
The plan brings together ambitious policies and significant new public investment, while seeking to mobilize private investment. This has the potential to deliver up to an estimated £42 billion of private investment by 2030 across energy, buildings, transport, innovation and the natural environment. The UK was the first major economy to embrace a legal obligation to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The deployment phase will help unlock the route to Net Zero in South Wales, helping support the future of existing industries, businesses and jobs. Once developed, the net zero infrastructure will attract new industries and businesses, further developing the production and use of hydrogen for home heating, power generation and transport across the region.