NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
UK announces £1b investment to boost offshore wind development
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
This week’s net zero news: CCS to 2050; Offshore Wind funding; Sand Battery
Chief Technology Officer at NZTC, Luca Corradi, and his team closely monitor the global net zero landscape. They follow the trends, policies, investments, and technological innovations that, together, bring the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca and his team look at DNV’s global forecast for carbon capture and storage, new funding announcement for UK offshore wind, and the world’s largest sand battery in Finland.
DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook: CCS to 2050 presents DNV’s global forecast for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to 2050
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is at a turning point. According to DNV , CCS capacity is expected to grow significantly. From 62 million tonnes of CO₂ per year in 2024 to 270 million tonnes by 2030. The actual amount of CO₂ captured and stored is projected to rise even more dramatically. From 41 million tonnes in 2024 to 1,300 million tonnes per year by 2050. By then, CCS could account for capturing around 6% of global CO₂ emissions.
However, even with this growth, CCS will need to expand to six times the projected 2050 level to meet DNV’s Pathway to Net Zero Emissions. This rapid scaling is especially critical for industries that are difficult to decarbonise.
Up until 2030, most CCS deployment will be driven by decarbonising the hydrocarbon production sectors (natural gas processing, low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia). Policy-driven growth in CCS capacity is predicted to lower costs by around 14% by 2030.
Beyond 2030, this is projected to shift towards hard-to-decarbonise sectors, with manufacturing accounting for 41% of annual CO2 captured by 2050. National gas with carbon capture will still be needed, but it’s share will decrease from 34% in 2030 to 6% in 2050. Additionally, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will begin to scale, primarily in electricity generation and manufacturing.
After 2040, carbon removal starts to scale. Driven by compliance and voluntary offset markets, carbon removals are forecast to reach 330 million tonnes per year by 2050. This will contribute one-quarter of total captured emissions. Average costs will decline by around 40% towards 2050 as technologies mature and scale.
CCS by sector in 2030 and 2050
A £1 billion public-private funding package has been announced to strengthen offshore wind development
The Global Offshore Wind Conference saw an announcement for a £1 billion public-private investment package to strengthen infrastructure, ports and the local supply chain for offshore wind. The funding includes £400 million from The Crown Estate, £300 million in funding announced by Great British Energy in April and £300 million to match-fund government from the offshore wind industry through the Industrial Growth Plan. The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) has formally assumed its new role as the delivery body for the Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan.
The Crown Estate’s investment is intended to support new infrastructure including ports, supply chain manufacturing and research and testing facilities. The Crown Estate’s ‘Powering Offshore Wind’ publication outlines their ambition for the £400 million investment (link here). The funding will be deployed through two key programmes: a £350 million Supply Chain Investment Programme and the £50 million Supply Chain Accelerator Programme supporting early-stage project development. The funding comes alongside the announcement that Great British Energy, The National Wealth Fund, The Scottish National Investment Bank, The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland and The Development Bank of Wales have come together to develop a unified public finance ‘ecosystem’ to build Britain’s offshore wind supply chains (link here).
Supply chain funding
A small town in Finland will replace fossil fuel heating for the world’s largest sand battery
Loviisan Lämpö has commissioned the world’s largest Sand Battery. Developed by Polar Night Energy, the industrial-scale Sand Battery now serves as the main production facility for the district heating network in Pornainen, Finland. In 2022, Polar Night Energy started operation of the world’s first commercial sand battery in Kankaanpää with a capacity of 200kW / 8MWh. This new Sand Battery is ten times larger with a thermal capacity power of 1 MW and a storage capacity of 100 MWh – enough to heat the town for almost a week.
A sand battery is a high-temperature thermal energy storage system that stores electricity as heat in sand or similar solid materials. Polar Night Energy’s Sand Battery is 13m tall, 15m wide, and uses approximately 2,000t of crushed soapstone – a byproduct of the production of Tulikivi’s heat-retaining fireplaces. The Sand Battery can deliver hot water, steam, or air, with output temperatures of up to 400°C.
Around 36% of industrial process heat falls within the temperature range of Polar Night Energy’s Sand Battery.
With the launch of the Sand Battery, the use of oil in Pornainen’s heating network will be phased out. The existing biomass boiler will continue to serve as back up to support the Sand Battery during peak demand. This is expected to cut emissions by nearly 70%.
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