The Acorn carbon capture and storage and hydrogen project in the UK North Sea will get Scottish Government funding to help drive forward Scotland’s Net Zero carbon targets by 2045.
The funding is part of a five year, £62m package will be provided by a new scheme, known as the North East Energy Transition Fund announced last Friday.
Announced by Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the scheme is designed to encourage the rapid development of a range of energy transition projects and ensure that Scotland’s economic recovery following the pandemic is environmentally sustainable.
Sturgeon said, ‘We want to protect jobs and businesses in the North East of Scotland and across the country. And in doing that we want to be able to ensure the country is able to lead and indeed benefit from Scotland’s necessary transition to a Net Zero economy.
That is why today I am announcing a new £62 million pound energy transition fund. Over the next five years, that fund will help key energy projects transition to Net Zero.’
Alan James, Managing Director of Pale Blue Dot Energy, the lead developers of the Acorn Project said, ‘We welcome this initiative. This is a real vote of confidence in the Acorn Project and a credit to the whole team here who have worked tirelessly to deliver the program which can be up and running by 2024. What this means in real terms is that we can accelerate progress towards reducing Scotland and the UK’s carbon emissions and at the same time capitalize on the skills and resources of Scotland’s oil and gas sector as it transitions away from fossil fuels.’
Acorn CCS holds the first UK CO2 appraisal and storage license to be awarded by the Oil and Gas Authority and is looking to establish CO2 mitigation infrastructure essential for meeting the Scottish and UK Government Net Zero targets.
UK-based energy services firm Petrofac has recently won a contract to provide Project Management systems and technical support during the Front End Engineering Design for Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and the Concept Select for Acorn Hydrogen, both part of developments planned at the St Fergus gas terminal near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.