Acorn carbon capture project to get £200m, Miliband confirms

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has confirmed that £200m will be provided to progress the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) scheme in Aberdeenshire.

Miliband - who has been visiting the St Fergus gas terminal where the project will be based - said he had told the company behind the project that he expected it to make a final investment decision by the end of the parliament.

He said he wanted to see significant progress "by the turn of the decade" but would not commit to a firm timetable.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth, which is sceptical about carbon capture, said the "scarce public money" would only directly benefit "greedy oil and gas companies".

The investment in the Acorn Project comes as part of the UK government's spending review which will increase Holyrood's budget by £2.9bn a year on average.

As part of his announcement, Miliband added that a Scottish Labour government would deliver new nuclear power in Scotland.

Acorn has said its project will safeguard about 18,000 jobs that would otherwise have been lost, including jobs at Grangemouth.

CO2 captured at Grangemouth will be transported to storage facilities under the North Sea, avoiding its release into the atmosphere.

The jobs will be needed to build pipelines to transport the CO2 safely and generate low-carbon power to homes and businesses.

The UK government is providing similar funding for the Viking carbon capture project in the Humber.

Miliband said: "This government is putting its money where its mouth is and backing the trailblazing Acorn and Viking CCS projects.

"This will industrial renewal in Scotland and the Humber with thousands of highly-skilled jobs at good wages to build Britain's clean energy future.

"Carbon capture will make working people in Britain's hard-working communities better off, breathing new life into their towns and cities and reindustrialising the country through our Plan for Change."

Tim Stedman, chief executive of Storegga, lead developer of Acorn, said: "We warmly welcome the UK government's for the Acorn project and the commitment to development funding that will enable the critical work needed to reach Final Investment Decision (FID)."

He said the funding announcement was a "milestone" and was on top of significant private sector investment.

"We look forward to working with government in the months ahead to understand the details of today's commitment, and to ensure the policy, regulatory and funding frameworks are in place to build and grow a world-leading UK CCS sector," he added.

Once Acorn and Viking are operational, combined, it has been claimed they could prevent up to 18 million tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere each year.

Those involved in the CCS schemes say they can also play a role in low-carbon power and hydrogen production, ing thousands of jobs.

Dr Liz Cameron, chief executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: "The government's backing for the Acorn Project is a significant endorsement which will help to make the north east a world leader in the low-carbon industry.

"This major carbon capture and storage facility puts us on an ecologically more sustainable trajectory and will bolster the region's economy by creating up to 15,000 jobs in construction and attracting billions in private investment.

"Whilst this intervention is undoubtedly welcome, we urge both the UK and Scottish governments to work in collaboration to realise Acorn's potential in full."

Caroline Rance, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "This is an enormous handout of supposedly scarce public money that will only directly benefit greedy oil and gas companies.

"Politicians are paying hundreds of millions to keep us locked into an unaffordable energy system which is reliant on fossil fuels and is destroying the climate.

"Carbon capture technology has 50 years of failure behind it, so businesses, workers and the public are being sold a lie about its role in their future."

She said building new fossil fuel infrastructure would undermine the energy transition and embolden oil firms to continue drilling in the North Sea.

"Both the UK and Scottish governments should instead be backing climate solutions that can improve people's lives such as upgrading public transport, ensuring people live in warm homes and creating green jobs for the long-term," she added.