The Technology Leadership Board, Net Zero Technology Centre and Accenture have published a joint report highlighting opportunities in carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, floating offshore wind (FOW) technologies and the wider innovation landscape to support the disruption of current solutions and meet commitments set out in the North Sea Transition Deal (NSTD). The study greatly emphasizes the need for testing and development of innovative technologies in order to unlock the low-carbon opportunity within the UK and recommends rapid investment to address today’s challenge of expensive and immature technologies. Key points include:
- Key stakeholders must back demonstration centres to rapidly cut low-carbon technology costs. Cross-sector collaborations and investments are key.
- Without the acceleration of deployable net-zero technology solutions, the UK will fail to deliver upon the low-carbon economic opportunity.
- A successful transition to clean energy will have large levels of interdependency, relying on innovative solutions throughout the supply chain and operations.
- Continued hydrocarbon production is dependent on CCS, as is blue hydrogen.
- All solutions will require adequate storage, transportation and transmission systems.
- The reuse of existing infrastructure is pivotal, particularly for blue hydrogen as a transitional solution that needs immediate implementation.
- Technology modularisation and standardisation is possible in the new energy domains. The opportunity to standardise FOW, for instance, is a tremendous opportunity that should not be missed.
- Trying to achieve standardisation for a mature oil and gas industry with incredibly diverse assets is an enormous challenge.