From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The Government has just announced two more carbon capture projects:

500 skilled clean energy jobs will be secured for workers in North Wales and the North West as 2 trailblazing carbon capture projects get ready for construction.

The UK’s first carbon capture-enabled cement plant at Padeswood, developed by Heidelberg Materials UK, and one of the world’s first full-scale carbon capture-enabled waste-to-energy facilities at Protos in Ellesmere Port, developed by Encyclis, have signed final contracts with government to begin construction. The 2 projects will provide highly skilled opportunities for Britain’s engineers, construction workers, technicians and health and safety experts. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pioneering-carbon-capture-projects-ready-for-construction

The cost of subsidising these two projects will come on top of the £9.4 billion spend on CCS announced in the June spending review, which only covers the CCUS clusters, which will pipe away and store CO2, as reported at the time:

The UK has already pledged “up to” £21.7bn of funding over 25 years to support five carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, involving “clusters” of connected facilities.

Most of this funding will come from levies on consumers, but the government has also been gradually announcing chunks of public investment to get these initiatives off the ground.

The spending review allocates another £9.4bn of capital spending by 2029. This will partly go towards “maximis[ing] deployment to fill the [CO2] storage capacity” of the first two funded clusters.

At the same time, the government also confirmed its support for the next two clusters – Acorn in north-east Scotland and Viking in the Humber in the spending review. These projects are set to be up and running in the 2030s.

The review states that the government is providing the “development funding to advance [the] delivery” of these clusters, with a final investment decision expected “later this parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability”.

UK spending review 2025: Key climate and energy announcements

As noted, once these projects are up and running, the ongoing costs will be loaded on to energy bills.

The total DESNZ budget between now and 2029/29 amounts to £45.1 billion, excluding Sizewell C and including CCS:

It goes without saying that spending taxpayer money on non-jobs, that create no added value for the economy, will act as a brake on economic growth in the long run.

I cannot think of anything more stupid than to dig a big hole and bury money in it!