The UK is awarding over £54 million of grant funding to fund the development of technology that will remove greenhouse gases, including carbon, from the atmosphere.
The aim of this grant scheme is to develop green technologies, create green jobs, reduce emissions and it has the potential to make billions for the industry.
There are 15 projects that will get a share of the £54 million, which comes under phase 2 of the Direct Air Capture and Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies competition. These 15 projects were whittled down from the 23 projects within phase 1 that were awarded a share of £5.6 million.
Some of the winners of the grant scheme include:
- Energy company, EDF, who have been awarded £3 million in order to fund a Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant.
- Rolls Royce who have also been awarded £3 million. The car manufacturing company will use this funding to produce a DAC demonstration unit that will remove 100 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. The company also have plans to create a larger version of the DAC that is predicted to capture 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere a year.
- Scottish company, SAC Consulting have also won a share of the funds, which they will use to develop technology that will remove the methane from the atmosphere that is produced from cattle.
Carbon removal technology is incredibly essential for the UK when reaching its net zero target for 2050 and the UK Government has put a target in place to remove a yearly amount of 25 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2030.