- Purveyors of baked beans, beer, and data centres to benefit from carbon-cutting funding
- Grants awarded to 25 firms in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
- Schemes involve hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, heat pumps, and recycling facilities
Twenty-five companies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will benefit from GBP 52 million in UK government grants to support decarbonisation plans in their businesses.
The support, announced today, has been allocated to a range of companies including Nestlé UK Ltd in Staffordshire, Heinz Manufacturing UK Ltd in Wigan, Paul’s Malt Ltd, in Bury St Edmunds, and Global Switch Estates 2 Ltd, a data centre in London. The grants are set to aid their use and development of carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, new recycling facilities, and heat pumps in their businesses.
“These companies represent some of the best of British business innovation – using new technologies to improve how we operate, become more sustainable, and continue to make the products we love – from baked beans to beer,” said Sarah Jones, the UK’s Minister for Industry.
The scheme is part of the broader £500 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which helps businesses with high energy usage decarbonise.
The largest grant – GBP 14 million – was awarded to Novelis UK Ltd in Warrington, north-west England, one of the world’s largest producers and recyclers of aluminium drinks cans. The UK government's 22% contribution to the company's project costs of GBP 63 million project are set to expand Novelis’ recycling capacity, reducing the company’s carbon emissions by over 350,000 tonnes, according to the government statement.
A GBP 5.5 million grant was also awarded to the hard-to-abate cement sector. Castle Cement Limited in Padeswood, Wales, will use the funding to develop a GBP 13.9 million carbon capture and storage project. The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs during construction and capture 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year once operational, according to the statement released on Thursday, 9 January.
“Industry needs support to decarbonise, or we risk shutting down our economy to meet net-zero targets. Decarbonisation must never be equated with deindustrialisation,” Mike Foster, chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, a not-for-profit trade association, told Gas Matters Today.
He added that decarbonisation solutions should be implemented in the locations where UK businesses are already based, to avoid the “mass relocation of industry.”
“That’s why keeping the gas infrastructure in place is so important,” he said. “Decarbonising gas with hydrogen or biomethane, or fitting carbon capture facilities, will help deliver what industry needs. That’s why we should welcome this announcement.”
The government noted that British industry is already covering around two-thirds of the cost of decarbonising its operations. The government plans to support these efforts with funding, as part of a wider strategy to transform the UK into a clean energy powerhouse.
Other notable grant allocations include GBP 2.5 million for Heinz — marking a 25% contribution to its GBP 7.2 million project costs — which has invested nearly GBP 5 million of its own funds in a project to switch from fossil fuels to heat the water needed for blanching beans and boiling spaghetti hoops. The company will now install heat pumps that reuse waste heat from other processes in the factory, improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions.
Nestlé UK Ltd in Staffordshire will receive GBP 786,000 towards a GBP 6.5 million project to switch evaporation technology and reduce gas usage.
Paul’s Malt Ltd, a brewery in Bury St Edmunds, eastern England, will receive a 50% grant of GBP 3.5 million towards a GBP 7 million heat pump project.
In East London, data centre firm Global Switch Estates 2 Ltd was awarded GBP 321,000 for a cooling plant upgrade.
The IETF, which launched in 2020, is being rolled out in three phases, with GBP 500 million in funding available until 2028. - HQ
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