(Reuters) – The British government on Wednesday presented a plan for moving away from subsidies and into a competitive market for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) by 2035.
As part of the CCUS Vision plan, Britain aims to move to a competitive allocation process for carbon capture projects from 2027 to speed up the building the CCUS sector in the country, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said.
The new plans follow up on a 20 billion pounds ($25.33 billion) investment pledge into carbon capture and storage technology and funding for clusters in Scotland and northern England, made by the government earlier this year.
Other initiatives under the new plans also include setting up conditions for projects that cannot transport CO2 by pipeline to enter the market from 2025 onwards, using other forms of transport such as ship, road and rail, DESNZ added.
Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it reaches the atmosphere and storing it safely underground is a key part of Britain’s plans to achieve a net-zero economy by 2050, with a target to capture 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
The space under the North Sea alone offered enough space to store to 78 billion tonnes of CO2, the government said.
The government also said it agreed commercial terms to expand the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) in northern England paving the way for expansion of that cluster.
The CCUS Vision programme is expected to boost the economy by 5 billion pounds a year by 2050, it added.
($1 = 0.7895 pounds)
(Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Michael Perry)
