Government ‘putting its money where its mouth is' with £200m for Acorn scheme
The UK Government is 'putting its money where its mouth is', Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said, as it was revealed £200 million is being made available for a carbon capture project in Scotland.
The UK Government confirmed it was meeting in full the request for development funding for the Acorn project in Aberdeenshire – the first time a government has provided funding of this scale for such a project to proceed.
The scheme, which proposes storing emissions from across Scotland under the North Sea, had previously been overlooked for support despite repeated calls from the Scottish Government and others for it to be backed.
With the UK Government also pledging to support the Viking Carbon capture and Storage (CCS) project in the Humber, Mr Miliband insisted the two schemes would help 'support industrial renewal' with 'thousands of highly skilled jobs'.
According to the sector, Acorn could support about 15,000 jobs at its peak, with up to 20,000 jobs at the Viking project.
And as it develops, it is planned that the Acorn site will link up with the former oil refinery at Grangemouth via more than 200 miles of pipelines.
An existing 175 miles of gas pipes will be repurposed for this, with 35 miles of new pipeline also being built, alllowing CO2 from the Grangemouth site to be transported to Acorn's storage facilities under the North Sea – a move which is seen by many as being key in securing a future for the facility, where some 400 workers were recently made redundant.
Speaking as he visited the Aberdeenshire site, Mr Miliband said: 'This Government is putting its money where its mouth is and backing the trailblazing Acorn and Viking CCS projects.
'This will support industrial renewal in Scotland and the Humber with thousands of highly-skilled jobs at good wages to build Britain's clean energy future.'
The Energy Secretary added: 'Carbon capture will make working people in Britain's hard-working communities better off, breathing new life into their towns and cities and reindustrialising the country through our Plan for Change.'
Mr Miliband visited the site the day after Rachel Reeves promised funding for Acorn in her spending review – although the Chancellor did not put a figure on how much support would be given in her statement to MPs.
Tim Stedman, chief executive of Storegga, the lead developer of Acorn, said: 'We warmly welcome the UK Government's support for the Acorn project and the commitment to development funding that will enable the critical work needed to reach Final Investment Decision (FID).'
He added that the 'milestone' was 'key not only for Acorn but for establishing Scotland's essential CCS infrastructure needed to grow and scale the UK's wider carbon capture and storage industry'.
Labour will make Scotland home to the green jobs of the future. pic.twitter.com/tGHJEWMpri
— Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) June 11, 2025
Mr Stedman continued: 'We look forward to working with Government in the months ahead to understand the details of today's commitment, and to ensure the policy, regulatory and funding frameworks are in place to build and grow a world-leading UK CCS sector.'
Meanwhile Graeme Davies, the executive vice president at Harbour Energy, which is leading the Viking project, said the commitment from Chancellor Rachel Reeves' spending review 'sends a strong signal' that the project was 'an infrastructure-led economic growth priority' for the Parliament.
He added: 'We will work with Government on the critical steps needed to progress Viking CCS towards a final investment decision'.
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