United Kingdom – UK authorities approved funding for three Equinor projects aimed to cut emissions from industries and support clean growth.
With a combination of private and public funding, Equinor and its partners will now progress these projects in order to create the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040. UK Government handed out the funding awards under the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).
Projects partnerships
First partnership is the Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH), a twelve-company partnership to turn the UK’s largest industrial cluster net zero through the step-wise deployment of low carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and negative emissions being delivered at sites across the Humber estuary. The first project is the Equinor-led H2H Saltend low carbon hydrogen facility and a hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline network across Humber industrial sites developed by National Grid Ventures.
The second one is the Net Zero Teesside (NZT), a five-company partnership to decarbonize the Teesside industrial cluster with carbon capture and build a new gas-fired power station with state-of-the art carbon capture technology.
The final one is the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a six-company partnership with Eni, National Grid, Shell, Total and operator bp to develop offshore carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure in the UK North Sea that will serve both ZCH and NZT.
Private and public funding
The three successful bids amount to GBP 229 million in private and public funding, with Equinor and its partners contributing more than two-thirds of the total.
The funding awards from UK Research & Innovation and the funding from Equinor and its partners will be used in each project to move through the detailed engineering and design stages and progress to the point where a final investment decision (FID) on each can be taken.