To address the need for professional services and advice in the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industry, Arup has joined forces with law firm Martineau and Yellow Wood Energy.
The CCS industry is relatively new and its rapid development has led to a situation where there is a lack of availability of genuine specialist professional services from practitioners with knowledge and experience across all areas of the CCS chain.
The collaboration enables Martineau, Yellow Wood Energy and Arup to provide a holistic service across the whole supply chain, complementing existing climate and energy offerings.
“This complements Arups’s existing UK and EU CCS activities and offers customers a unique single source that can cover all the bases.”
– Steve Argent, Arup
The team will deliver specialist advice covering costing and finance, risk assessment support, regulatory and policy design and analysis, project development support and legal support including drafting of agreements for trading, transportation, storage operation, trading of rights, service contracts, planning and environmental issues.
The new alliance is expected to attract interest from many of the companies involved in the CCS process, from project developers to service companies, equipment manufacturers and technology specialists, all looking for help with the complex issues their projects will face.
The Carbon Capture and Storage process
We cannot generate electricity from fossil fuels without producing CO2, but we can capture the CO2 and place it where it causes no environmental damage. This is the essence of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), an industry with the potential to solve the impending energy crisis in an environmentally acceptable way.
The CCS process avoids the release to atmosphere of CO2 created during energy production by capturing the CO2 before it is released, and transporting it to a location where it can safely be stored underground.
The UK has some of the best potential CO2 storage sites in Europe as well as long-established engineering and project management skills in fossil fuel power generation and offshore oil and gas extraction.
The UK also has the financial, technical, commercial and legal expertise to construct the complex business models and contractual arrangements essential to deliver projects – but we must act now and act decisively if we are to lead the world and make the most of our opportunity.