Event Review - Industrial Decarbonisation Network - July
Jonathan Oxley, Cluster Plan Manager, welcomed over 60 delegates to the Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Network on 15 July at CATCH.
Jonathan Oxley, Cluster Plan Manager, welcomed over 60 delegates to the Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Network on 15 July at CATCH.
Jonathan Oxley, Cluster Plan Manager, welcomed over 60 delegates to the Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Network on 15 July at CATCH.
The meeting ran a successful blended approach with delegates joining in person as well as via Teams.
The network first heard from Dan Sadler, Low Carbon Strategy Director at Equinor, who gave a presentation on developing the East Coast Cluster – a project decarbonising a ‘supercluster’ embracing the Humber and Teesside. These two industrial regions are supported by one storage option and this enables the UK to connect primary emitters to long term CO2 storage. The East Coast Cluster can support the scale of emissions present in the Humber with over 30 Mt from our region needing a storage solution. The East Coast Cluster is supporting UK regions with a strong levelling up agenda and will secure existing jobs.
Dan commented that alongside the new dense phase CO2 storage system the project will develop a parallel hydrogen distribution system. Recent analysis has shown that construction jobs are estimated at 9,400 direct jobs per year and 2,200 direct job/year in operations. To deploy the ambitions of the East Coast Cluster the jobs peak is due in 2026 at over 40,000 total jobs, including indirect jobs.
Next up the network heard about the Transforming Foundation Industries challenge from Bruce Adderley, Challenge Director – TFI - UK Research and Innovation.
The programme support industries with the development of energy efficiency and resource efficiency activities that support the earliest interventions required to meet the industrial decarbonisation net zero challenge. The programme is looking for projects that can deliver EE improvements, CO2 reduction and create jobs.
Jonathan gave an update on the Humber Industrial Cluster Plan which launched early 2021 and runs to March 2023. The project is seeking to understand how we maximise synergies across the regions deployment projects and identify how to close the gap to net zero, whilst building strong supply chains and developing skills and training opportunities. The cluster plan has received a wide range of attention from international clusters with their own decarbonisation ambitions and continues to reach out to a broad audience.
The project will be commissioning a range of studies and an energy systems model in the coming weeks – please look out for these notices via our social media channels. One of the studies we plan commission will build on other Humber activities such as the Freeports and understand the capacity for our region to become a low carbon manufacturing hub, embedding industries in the Humber where we can mitigate these emissions responsibly.
Join us at the next Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Network on Tuesday 19 October – the event will be held during the afternoon as part of this year’s Waterline Summit.
