WARRINGTON South MP Andy Carter has welcomed over £150 million Government funding to slash carbon emissions from industry, schools and hospitals in the North West.
Mr Carter says the funding, which aims to make the North West become one of the world’s first low carbon industrial clusters by 2030, with £33 million to create two new onshore and offshore hydrogen projects to power homes and industry, will be a major boost to the local supply chain.
The Government’s ambitious blueprint is for the for UK to become home to pioneering low-carbon industrial sector, creating up to 10,000 new jobs in the North West.
The funding comes as part of a package of national measures announced by the Business and Energy Secretary that will create and support approximately 80,000 UK jobs over the next 30 years. The national pot comprises £171 million which has been allocated to nine green tech projects across the UK to cut emissions from industry, and £932 million to decarbonise heat and improve the energy efficiency of public buildings across the country, including schools and hospitals.
It also comes alongside a new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, which sets out the Government’s vision for a competitive industrial sector as we transition to a low carbon future.
Welcoming the news Mr Carter said: “The commitment of £150m from the Government is excellent news, both for our ambitions in reaching Net Zero by 2050, and securing skilled local jobs across the Cheshire and Merseyside region. Hynet in particular will provide a bedrock to level up across the North West, creating around 6,000 permanent highly skilled green jobs and delivering clean hydrogen energy into our local network to heat our homes.
“Warrington South has a wealth of manufacturing plants and innovative companies who want to support the development of Hynet and will be pleased by this news. It will have a massive boost to the supply chain across Warrington, and critically will work with younger people and apprentices to upskill and make the case for working in the energy sector.”
Of the £171 million for green tech projects, £33 million will go to Hynet, a hydrogen energy and Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage project in the North West which aims to transform the region into a low-carbon industrial cluster by 2030.
The funding will also support the development of two onshore and offshore projects near Liverpool to build the infrastructure needed for a regional hydrogen economy locally – including producing, distributing, and storing hydrogen to help decarbonise local industry.
Taken together, the projects aim to start capturing one million tonnes of CO2 from 2025, rising to 10 million from 2030 – the equivalent of removing all emissions from Merseyside and Cumbria combined.
A further £123.6 million will be invested in 28 projects in the region to improve energy efficiency and decarbonise heating in public buildings and cut energy bills for hospitals, schools and council buildings.
The funding forms part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which funds measures such as low carbon heating systems and energy-efficient insulation. A total £932 million is being allocated through the scheme across the country to 429 projects.
Taken together, the North West will benefit from £150 million investment.
Project Director of HyNet North West, David Parkin, said:“We cannot reach net zero without decarbonising industry and HyNet North West is a game-changing project of strategic importance. Through the production of low carbon hydrogen and the capturing, and storing, of carbon dioxide, it offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create real change in how we produce and use our energy, not only reducing emissions but also creating and safeguarding jobs.”
Among the projects to be supported in the North West through the Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme are:
£78,236,986 for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to decarbonise 36 schools, 15 bodies of the Greater Manchester public estate, including Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Greater Manchester Police, the Royal Northern College of Music, and various Greater Manchester community buildings, such as 22 leisure centres. The buildings will get extensive green upgrades, including insulation, new air source heat pumps and solar panels to generate their own renewable energy.
£4,151,000 for the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust deliver improvements across its hospital sites, including better insulation and solar panels.
£5,836,172 for the Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council to install upgrades in 14 council-owned buildings, including 4 schools, 6 leisure centres, a museum and office buildings.
Estimates suggest schools and hospitals in England and Wales could save tens of millions of pounds a year on their energy bills by being more efficient – helping cut up to 2.4 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2 annually – roughly the emissions from the cities of Liverpool or Manchester.
The investment builds on the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution published last year and comes alongside the new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy.
The Strategy will support existing industry to decarbonise, encourage the growth of new, low carbon industries in the UK, and give businesses the long-term certainty needed to invest in home-grown decarbonisation technology – rather than outsourcing industrial activity to high-emission countries around the world.
The blueprint also includes measures to build on the UK’s leading efforts in moving towards greener energy sources, with an expectation of 20 Terawatt hours of the UK’s energy supply switching from fossil fuel sources to low carbon alternatives by 2030 – the equivalent of the annual gas consumption of around 1.5 million homes.
The government will also introduce new rules on measuring the energy and carbon performance of the UK’s largest commercial and industrial buildings, including office blocks and factories, in England and Wales. The move could provide potential savings to businesses of around £2 billion per year in energy costs in 2030, and aim to reduce annual carbon emissions by over 2 million tonnes – the equivalent of removing emissions from a town the size of Doncaster.
