UK to invest 200 million pounds in Acorn carbon capture project in Scotland

By Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will invest 200 million pounds ($272 million) in the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Scotland, the government said on Thursday, fleshing out details of funding for the technology announced in a spending review on Wednesday.

Britain has a climate target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and has said CCS will be needed to curb emissions from energy-intensive industrial sectors.

Acorn, being developed by Storegga, Shell UK, Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners, in St Fergus, Scotland, will capture carbon dioxide emissions from industry and store them under the North Sea.

"This vital support will enable the critical work needed to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) and marks a major step forward — not only for Acorn, but for the development of Scotland’s CCS infrastructure and the growth of a UK-wide carbon capture and storage industry," Tim Stedman, CEO of Storegga, said in an emailed statement.

The government said it would also back the Viking CCS project in the Humber region, in the north of England, without specifying how much it would receive.

"This (funding) will support industrial renewal in Scotland and the Humber with thousands of highly-skilled jobs at good wages to build Britain’s clean energy future," Britain’s energy minister, Ed Miliband, said in a release from Britain's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Once operational, the two projects could capture up to 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the government said. 

The funding is part of 9.4 billion pounds the government pledged to carbon capture technology over the spending review period and the 21.7 billion pounds it last year said would be spent on CCS over 25 years.

($1 = 0.7352 pounds)

(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Alex Richardson)