The Solent Cluster team recently travelled to Leeds to exhibit and speak at the fourth UK CCUS & Hydrogen Decarbonisation Summit: Projects and Innovation.
The event brought together representatives from major players in the energy sector, with more than 500 government officials, regulators, key industry stakeholders and leading academia and service companies, in attendance.
Throughout the two-day summit, hundreds of people visited The Solent Cluster stand and were really interested to hear the opportunities that the Cluster’s plans provide for CCUS and Hydrogen production as well as Sustainable Aviation Fuel, in the South.
Zoë Colbeck, Project Manager, The Solent Cluster, commented: “There was a real buzz at the conference about The Solent Cluster which was really exciting. We had other clusters and Track-1 project partners approaching us offering insight and support – collaboration was not just a word. Being new to the project, it personally gave me a great opportunity to immerse myself in the decarbonisation projects and clusters in Track-1. The plans to make the UK a leader in decarbonisation were inspirational and The Solent Cluster will hopefully be able to play a significant role”.
Day two of the event was kicked off with a talk from one of The Solent Cluster’s founding members, ExxonMobil. Michael Foley, UK Low Carbon Solutions Executive at ExxonMobil spoke about the opportunities for low carbon investment in the UK:
“The energy transition is an exciting growth prospect for the UK. Large-scale investment is required in energy and industrial infrastructure over the coming decades in order to meet our stated climate ambitions. Whilst the UK is seen as a leader in many aspects of decarbonisation, and has already achieved significant milestones in some sectors, further opportunities exist to cement the UK as a global leader in hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as industrial decarbonisation and heavy transport. ExxonMobil intends to play a leading role in the energy transition, providing affordable and reliable energy, reducing emissions from its operations and growing opportunities in hydrogen, CCS and biofuels.”
Later in the day, Stu Baker, Project Director for The Solent Cluster spoke on how the Cluster’s unique membership profile presented an opportunity to benefit communities, industry and commercial sectors in the south region and beyond.
