Costain has welcomed the Government's commitment to clean, green energy and security in its newly-published Powering Up Britain plan.

The plan sets out how the government will deliver UK energy security and Net Zero, and diversified, decarbonised and domestic energy production by investing in renewables and nuclear.

Core to the plan is backing Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) in the form of eight projects to progress to negotiations to form the first two CCUS clusters, in the North East and North West.

Costain is an established leader in both of the CCUS clusters now progressing to the next stage of development, the East Coast Cluster in Teesside and The Humber, and the HyNet project in Merseyside. Over the last year, the company has worked with partners on the East Coast Cluster to design the onshore CO2 gathering pipeline and the new grid connection for the gas power-station. This crucial project will provide the common infrastructure needed to transport CO2 from emitters in the Humber and Teesside to secure offshore storage in the North Sea.


Building on the government's £20 billion commitment for CCUS technologies and projects, Costain welcomes this huge vote of confidence in the role of CCUS in the UK’s decarbonisation of the industrial sector. This is an area Costain has been supporting clients on for many years. Its expert teams have been engaging with industry to seek out projects with the opportunity to strengthen the UK’s position in CCUS, working on CO2 recovery, purification, compression, dehydration, liquefaction and underground gas storage.

Responding to the government's plan, Costain chief executive, Alex Vaughan, said: "Powering Up Britain is a crucial step forward in securing the UK’s green energy supply. It is also a welcome commitment to investing alongside the private sector to transform our critical infrastructure and drive economic prosperity and green jobs. We’re proud to be at the forefront of innovations in Carbon Capture and Storage, working on two of the UK’s most exciting projects in Teesside and The Humber and Merseyside. Our leading expertise in the area will be crucial in helping the Government achieve its ambitious plans."