Our Projects

Project title: Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure (SNZI) programme 

Project funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund 

Project timeframe: March 2021 – February 2024 

Overview:  This £30m UK Government funded initiative, with industry match funding and linked to the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, will bring together academic and industrial partners to develop a major package of work designed to progress a national low carbon infrastructure.  

This important programme will provide a significant boost to the region’s fast-growing low carbon credentials, paving the way for onshore and offshore developments totalling in excess of £3 billion. 

As the academic partner, the Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) will lead work around understanding the longer-term economic impacts and job preservation and creation opportunities as Scotland transitions away from oil and gas to low carbon fuels like hydrogen and CO2 removal technologies such as CCS. 

The SNZI initiative compliments work that is already underway on Scotland’s Net Zero Roadmap project, which CEP is also contributing to.

Partners: Lead partner – Pale Blue Dot, Other partners – SSE Thermal , National Grid , Petrofac , LNG9/GB-Tron and NECCUS

CEP contacts:  Professor Karen Turner

Project funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund 

Project timeframe: January 2021 - December 2022

Overview: The ambitious SNZR project, led by the industrial carbon capture and storage alliance, NECCUS, will analyse Scottish industrial emissions and investigate routes to decarbonising large sections of Scotland’s industry. The work forms part of a drive to create the world’s first net-zero emissions industrial zone by 2040 and is the latest phase of the UK’s £170m Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge. 

The Centre for Energy Policy will be joining nine industrial partners and the University of Edinburgh in the project. The Centre’s involvement will focus on understanding the public policy challenges of decarbonising industry, and will be crucial to understanding the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of these industries and how they can contribute to a prosperous and sustainable economy and society. 

 Partners:  Lead partners– NECCUS, Other partners – Aker Solutions, Costain, Doosan Babcock, Energy Systems Catapult, Halliburton Management, Pale Blue Dot Energy, OGTC, Opitmat, University of Edinburgh, Wood Group UK 

 CEP contacts:  Professor Karen Turner  

Project Funder: CESi

Project timeframe: June 2020 – April 2021

Overview: The UK and Scottish Governments commitments to the mid-century net zero targets present a significant challenge that requires systemic changes in how we live and do business. The questions/concerns around investment in Electric Vehicles (EVs), EV rollout and the upcoming 2035 UK-wide restriction on sales of new conventional vehicles is a key focus of net zero priorities and futures. In this context, a central and crucial question focuses on how and to what extent the level and timing of investment to support the projected EV rollout not only enables targeted emission reduction, but also affects the pathways and nature of economic expansion and economic wellbeing. This project uses an economic system modelling approach, soft-linked with an energy system model to invest to investigate questions around who ultimately pays for the costs of upgrading the power network to facilitate an EV rollout consistent with the UK’s 2050 net zero carbon ambitions. We consider how the timing of the EVs rollout and manufacturer ability to keep up with the increasing demand for EVs, may affect the nature and magnitude of the impacts driven by the electrification of transportation. We also consider the critical question of how low income UK households may be affected where their uptake of/access to EVs is likely to be restricted, and how this issue may be assessed in public policy decision making

Key people: PI: Professor Karen Turner

CIs: Dr Oluwafisayo Alabi, Dr Christian Calvillo and Dr Antonios Katris

Key related publications

Research brief : https://doi.org/10.17868/72954

Project Funder: CIFF & Bellona

Project timeframe: October 2020 – September 2021

Project Summary: Industrial decarbonisation is one of the areas that successful measures need to be implemented in order for the UK to achieve its mid-century net zero targets. To date the research focus has been primarily on the development of cost-effective solutions that will allow the decarbonisation of carbon-intensive industrial processes. However, there has been little research on the economy-wide impacts that may be driven by the additional investment and operational cost requirements introduced by the available technologies. These are crucial considerations if the decarbonisation is to take place at home rather than leading to the off-shoring of industries and the associated losses in jobs and value added. In this project we focus our attention on how the wider UK economy may be affected by the introduction and operation of a CCS system, as an example of a decarbonisation solution with high embedded capital and operational costs. We use multi-sector economy-wide input output (IO) accounting and computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling to study the impact of the different components of CCS to a number of key policy-relevant variables. The outcomes of our analysis are used to develop political economy narratives, with which we are engaging with policy stakeholders; including civil servants, politicians, NGOs, industry actors, interest groups and the media.

Key people (internal): PI: Professor Karen Turner

CIs: Dr Julia Race, Emeritus Professor Kim Swales

Researchers: Dr Oluwafisayo Alabi, Dr Christian Calvillo, Dr Antonios Katris and Dr Enrong Chang

Key related publications (name and DOI or strathprints links for: research briefs, policy brief, academic publications, presentations)

Working paper with Bellona : https://doi.org/10.17868/72953

Policy briefing 1: https://doi.org/10.17868/72886

Policy briefing 2: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/72094/

Policy briefing 3 (net zero principles): https://doi.org/10.17868/71580