Award-winning Acorn gives procurement insight to the local and global supply chain
Supply chain companies based across Scotland, the UK and Europe turned out en-masse to learn more about the procurement timeline for the Acorn project, at an event in Aberdeen this week.
More than 100 companies from regional small to medium sized enterprises to multinationals expressed an interest in the event, and some 114 people from 66 companies turned out hear about pre-qualification for upcoming front end engineering and design studies from representatives of the Acorn Project.
Representatives of major contracting organisations, technical and engineering consultancies, equipment manufacturers and industry bodies were invited to engage with the project and posed questions to its leadership.
Areas of interest included the type of facilities needed at St Fergus – the focal point of Acorn Transport and Storage (T&S) – to capture CO2 emission and transport that CO2 to the Acorn Store’s offshore. The skills and size of workforce needed to create the system; and its own operational decarbonisation credentials.
Acorn has enjoyed a landmark 12 months, and was named Decarbonisation Project of the Year at the 14th annual World Energy Capital Assembly Awards of Excellence 2023, in London last week.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed this summer that Acorn, the foundation of the Scottish Cluster, was entering into Track-2 of the UK Government’s cluster selection process. One of two T&S systems recognised as best placed to deliver on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s objectives in Track-2, Acorn could store up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
Leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer voiced his support for Acorn during a visit to St Fergus in Aberdeenshire – the focal point of Acorn T&S – earlier this month.
The Scottish Cluster is a collection of industrial carbon capture and CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure projects (CCS) in Scotland. It will enable a sustainable future for hard-to-abate sectors, protecting jobs, supporting communities, and creating new value-adding opportunities for Scotland and the UK.
Acorn will re-use former energy infrastructure to deliver CO2 from industry to the Acorn stores, in rock formations 2.5km below the seabed, some 100km off the north-east coast of Scotland.
Other locations in the UK and Europe would also be served by an Acorn import facility at Peterhead Port, including potential for emissions to be shipped from dispersed emitters.
Acorn has received match funding from the UK and Scottish Governments and has benefited from two rounds of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding from the European Commission.