Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: Industrial decarbonisation

The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has supported the UK’s six largest industrial clusters to decarbonise at scale through the development of low carbon technologies and infrastructure, increased industry competitiveness and collaboration and contributed to the UK’s clean growth.

Budget:
£210 million
Duration:
2019 to 2024
Partners involved:
Innovate UK (lead), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre only)

The scope and what we're doing

Together with UK industrial partners, the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has exceeded its initial aims and laid the foundation for developing at least four low carbon industrial clusters by 2030 and the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.

See a short YouTube animation presenting background and achievements of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge

The UK’s industrial clusters are groups of co-located energy intensive organisations which are of key importance to the local economies of their regions, supporting jobs and communities, and to the UK economy as whole.

The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge was designed to support the UK’s drive for clean growth by enabling key industrial clusters to decarbonise at scale. These clusters are located in:

  • Humber
  • Teesside
  • North West
  • Scotland
  • South Wales
  • Black Country

The challenge has provided £210 million, matched by £261 million from industry, which has been invested into developing technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen fuel switching. The technologies are being deployed and scaled up within the UK’s largest industrial clusters.

The challenge was delivered in two stages via three workstreams:

  • deployment: projects have designed the infrastructure required for CCS and hydrogen production at full commercial scale
  • cluster plans: projects produced plans to reach net zero in each of the industrial cluster regions
  • Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC): a dedicated research centre that has brought together academia, industry and government to support technology development for the transition to net zero

The deployment, cluster plans and IDRIC workstreams operated on a collaborative basis through knowledge-sharing, industry engagement and collective leadership.

Deployment projects

The £172 million deployment investment has enabled significant progress towards reductions in industrial carbon dioxide emissions in industrial clusters.

The deployment projects have provided detailed designs and demonstration of industry-scale technologies and shared infrastructure for the cost-effective deep decarbonisation of industrial clusters.

Nine deployment projects were awarded funding in the ‘Decarbonisation of industrial clusters phase 2: deployment’ competition, including:

  • HyNet– Hydrogen and CCUS (onshore)
  • HyNet – Hydrogen and CCUS (offshore)
  • Humber Zero
  • Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure (onshore)
  • Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure (offshore)
  • South Wales Industrial Cluster
  • Northern Endurance Partnership
  • Net Zero Teesside
  • Zero Carbon Humber

See the deployment project videos on YouTube:

Cluster plans

The £8 million cluster plans investment has delivered plans and feasibility studies to achieve net zero in each industrial cluster. This has ensured that the UK is able to meet UK government ambition of four decarbonised clusters by 2030 and at least one net zero industrial cluster by 2040.

Six cluster plan projects were funded in the ‘Decarbonisation of industrial clusters: cluster plan’ competition:

Case study: Decarbonisation projects in industrial areas

See the Innovate UK project videos on YouTube:

The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has built on these cluster plans to produce a UK-wide cluster plan: ‘Enabling net zero: a plan for UK industrial cluster decarbonisation’.

This plan sets out the next steps for how the UK can harness the power of its industrial clusters to support its net zero ambitions and drive the next phase of emissions reductions, whilst contributing to a stronger economy, energy security, greater innovation, and community vitality.

Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)

IDRIC works with academia, industry, government and other stakeholders to deliver multidisciplinary research and innovation to support the decarbonisation of the UK’s industrial clusters. The programme funded 100 research projects in cross-cutting areas of technology, policy, economics and regulation.

Find outputs from the centre, including journals, webinars, reports and policy briefs through the IDRIC Knowledge Hub.

IDRIC has secured additional funding to continue its works beyond the end of funding for the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge.

Why we're doing it

In 2019, the former Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) identified the six largest industrial clusters in the UK in the Industrial Clusters Mission (GOV.UK).

These clusters are vital to the UK economy, securing 1.5 million jobs and annually exporting goods and services worth £320 billion. But they also release around 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equating to one third of all business and industrial emissions.

The delivery of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has developed a platform for government and industry to progress large-scale decarbonisation in UK clusters rapidly and cost-effectively, and to de-risk opportunities for future cluster decarbonisation.

The majority of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge-funded deployment projects are central to the UK government’s Cluster Sequencing Programme. This programme is determining the natural sequence for locations to deploy carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in the UK to achieve the target of four CCUS-enabled industrial clusters by 2030.

Through the successful delivery of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge projects, the programme has built the foundation for the development of a new CCUS industry in the UK by readying the technology and the path to net zero for the UK’s industrial clusters.

See our videos providing further information on the challenge:

Opportunities, support and resources available

Challenge reports

The ‘Enabling net zero’ reports are intended to support industry, government and the academic community, providing key insights into two related but distinct areas of industrial decarbonisation.

Enabling net zero: a plan for UK industrial cluster decarbonisation’ brings together learnings from the six cluster plans, and sets out how the UK can drive the next phase of emissions reductions while contributing to a stronger economy, energy security greater innovation and community vitality.

Enabling net zero: progress on decarbonising UK industrial clusters’ provides a high impact assessment of the status of the deployment projects, including an assessment of progress to date and consideration of implications for further implementation.

Information on the government’s cluster sequencing process

Cluster sequencing for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) deployment: Phase-1 (GOV.UK)

Policies supported by the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge

Industrial decarbonisation strategy (GOV.UK)

Past projects, outcomes and impact

The ‘Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge: celebrating our impact‘ report details the projects, impacts and benefits of the IDC programme.

Stage one impacts

In 2020, the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge awarded a share of £1 million to six initial Deployment projects, and a share of a further £1 million to six Roadmaps projects to establish the industrial cluster teams and outline plans.

Cluster Plan impact stories:

Case study: Humber Industrial Cluster Plan
Case study: Net Zero North West Cluster Plan
Case study: South Wales
Case study: Scottish Net Zero Roadmap
Case study: Repowering Black Country
Case study: Net Zero Tees Valley

Last updated: 5 December 2024

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