One of the region’s key policy-making bodies has endorsed the Humber 2030 Vision for jobs, growth and decarbonisation.
Hull and Humber Chamber of Council has pledged its support for the recently launched £15 billion prospectus of transformation projects within the Energy Estuary. It was launched at last month’s Waterline Summit, and followed up with a reception in the House of Lords.
Richard Gwilliam, chair of key partner Humber Energy Board, addressed the Chamber’s latest meeting, and described the Parliament push as a resounding success. As reported, Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband joined regional MPs from across the benches in expressing their backing.
Read more: £15b project pipeline could make Humber the world's beacon for Net Zero industry
Mr Gwilliam, who plays a key policy role at Drax as head of cluster development, highlighted that the Humber was one of the biggest emitting regions in Europe which means there’s huge potential for decarbonisation. Humber businesses are working in partnership with those from Teesside as they will eventually store their CO2 in the same place.
However, he made the point that: “Teesside has had more success in attracting investment due to Mayor Ben Houchen providing a single point of contact for inward investors”.
He said: “The opportunity to decarbonise the Humber has international interest and there are multiple decarbonisation initiatives, but the lack of single message clarity has worked against us.” He was invited to chair the Humber Energy Board to bring together a regional consensus and took on the challenge which has led to the creation of this single vision.
“For the first time we’ve been able to explain how all these decarbonisation projects relate to one another and the role of pipeline infrastructure to take all the captured CO2 out into the North Sea and store it in deep geological deposits,” he said. “Our region will be serviced by two stores, the Northern Endurance Partnership store off the Yorkshire coast being promoted by the Northern Endurance Partnership and Harbour Energy who is looking to store captured CO2 in the depleted, legacy gas fields including Viking off the Lincolnshire coast. The whole process of carbon capture and storage will allow the big industries to continue but with a much lower carbon footprint. There are few places in the world which can take this much CO2, so it is a world leading project.”
He told how at the heart of the vision is a pipeline network that will run from Drax in the west to the Keadby power cluster, Scunthorpe steelworks and onto the Immingham power and refining cluster, before crossing the estuary to Saltend, east of Hull. These pipelines will take captured carbon dioxide away for permanent storage under the North Sea and bring hydrogen to existing industries to promote low carbon fuel switching.
“The pipelines will be buried, running anonymously through the region. The Humber is already a nationally important industrial economy but this opportunity is of international significance and recognised by the World Economic Forum,” he enthused.
Responding to a question as to the level of emissions a company needs to be involved from Chamber vice president Albert Weatherill, Mr Gwilliam said that “one of the reasons that the Humber is a front-running region is that we have large economies of scale – clearly to make the pipeline cost effective you need large volumes of captured CO2”.
Chamber president, Mike Whitehead, added: “The potential for the region is enormous and very exciting, but the sad thing was that we as a region are hiding our light under a bushel and not telling the rest of the world and the UK what is going on in the Humber – and that needs to change!”
Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce was an early signatory to the initial movement for Zero Carbon Humber, led by Equinor and Drax and championed by the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership back in 2019.
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