The post-combustion carbon capture technology company offers carbon dioxide capture solutions for the UK strengthens its team
The Acorn Partners – Storegga, Shell U.K Limited (“Shell”), Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners (“NSMP”) are pleased to confirm the appointment of Nic Braley to lead the Acorn Transport and Storage joint venture.
The role will strengthen collaboration of Acorn’s multi-disciplinary team and concentrate efforts towards advancing project development.
Last month the Acorn Partners – Storegga, Shell U.K Limited (“Shell”), Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners (“NSMP”) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) with Uniper, an international energy company operating over 22GW of generation capacity in Europe and one of the world’s largest power producers.
Uniper is developing proposals to retrofit post-combustion carbon capture technology on up to three units at their Grain power station, a 1,326MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant, located in the South East of England, on the Isle of Grain. The project could potentially capture over two million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Acorn and Uniper have entered into the MoU to jointly develop a potential solution to ship captured CO2 from the Isle of Grain to Peterhead Port in the North East of Scotland and onto the Acorn transportation and storage (T&S) network, which can then pipe the CO2 to permanent storage 2.5Km below the seabed in the North Sea using re-purposed gas pipelines.
As part of their plans, Uniper are seeking to use existing jetty infrastructure near Grain to load the ships with captured CO2 and ship it from Kent to Scotland.
The joint project would contribute to the UK Government’s CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage) Cluster Sequencing Track-2 ambitions. To do this, Uniper and Acorn plan to collaborate to develop technical, commercial, and regulatory proposals to enable shipment of CO2 within this timeframe.
Mike Lockett, Uniper UK Country Chairman and Group Chief Commercial Officer Power, said: “Uniper is investing significantly to decarbonise our existing power stations, to meet our ambitious target to generate more than 80 per cent of our installed power capacity from carbon-free sources by 2030. We are exploring a range of options to transform our gas-fired generation to achieve this, from alternative fuels, such as hydrogen or biofuels, to post combustion carbon capture.
Retrofitting carbon capture technology at Grain – one of the most efficient gas plants in our fleet, will remove millions of tonnes of CO2 during the electricity generation process, whilst still providing flexible and reliable power to the UK’s energy system
New appointment Nic Braley, who has more than 35 years’ experience in the global energy sector, began his career as a petroleum engineer in Aberdeen and has served in senior vice president, strategy and commercial, chief commercial and technical operator, and country leadership roles in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe.
Most recently he was Senior Vice President of Non-Operated Ventures & North Sea Electrification at Harbour Energy, one of the Acorn partners.
Acorn is a joint venture between Storegga, Shell UK, Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners.
The Acorn Transport and Storage (T&S) system will enable timely and efficient decarbonisation of Scotland. It will provide tangible progress to the Scotland 2045 and UK 2050 Net Zero targets, opening up significant new value creating activity for Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Steve Murphy, Chief Commercial Officer, Storegga on behalf of Acorn said: “Nic joins at an exciting time for Acorn – his extensive experience and track record in major projects around the world are valuable additions to our team. He will lead a number of key efforts in the structure and development of Acorn T&S, and the team working to realise the project as we respond to Track 2 of the UK Government’s cluster sequencing process.”
In 2021 the UK Government awarded the Scottish Cluster reserve status in the first track of its Cluster Sequencing competition. In July 2023, Acorn was recognised as one of two T&S systems best placed to meet the Track 2 criteria and support the delivery of the UK Government’s commitment to capture and store 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
