A range of factors – economic, cultural, historical and geographical – could make South Wales the UK’s leading low carbon cluster by 2050, argues Ben Burggraaf, CEO of Net Zero Industry Wales (NZIW).
Burggraaf, a chartered mechanical engineer by training, is a native of the Netherlands. Previously, he was energy optimisation manager at the Port Talbot steelworks – his first job in Wales, in 2006. He has also worked as head of energy for Welsh Water, leading on developing its net zero strategy.
Announced earlier this year by the Welsh government, NZIW is a newly-established body that works with 40 business and academic partners to support a wide range of energy-intensive industries to achieve net zero. Mainly within the power, industry and steel-making sectors, the companies represented are responsible for the majority of the carbon emissions in the region and employ more than 100,000 people.
The purpose of NZIW, said Burggraaf, is to support South Wales to become a world leader in low-carbon manufacturing, building on the hard work of many Welsh companies and like-minded stakeholders that established the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC). Over the next two years, NZIW, a non-profit body, will develop a pan-Wales remit.
The SWIC is already on the net zero journey, Burggraaf explained. In April 2021, it received £1.5m in funding from the UK’s Industrial Decarbonisation challenge to map what is needed to support South Wales in becoming a net zero carbon region by 2050. Industrial and energy efficiency consultancy CRPlus is leading on the work.
In a separate contract, construction and engineering consultancy Costain has secured phase two funding from Innovate UK of nearly £20m to carry out engineering design studies in support of decarbonisation schemes and hydrogen infrastructure for South Wales.
"This is going to be a huge development ... a once in a lifetime opportunity for Wales."
~ Ben Burggraaf, Net Zero Industry Wales
As part of a UK-wide industrial decarbonation strategy, the SWIC has plans to replace fossil fuels with large-scale hydrogen manufacture, using renewable energy. It will deploy carbon utilisation, capture and storage to progress the transition while the renewable energy infrastructure is being built.
Consulting opportunities
Virtually every strategically important UK environmental consultancy is involved in one or more projects in the South Wales region. In the wake of the CRPlus and Costain studies, many more contracts will follow, both for consultancy and to fulfil what is no less than the creation of a new industrial infrastructure, based on the legacy of the old one.
The UK government has declared an ambition to establish a zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040 and a low-carbon industrial cluster by 2030. And Wales, Burggraaf explains, is in a well-favoured position. Politically, it is the only county in Europe with legislation – the Well-being of Future Generations Act of 2015 – that embodies ESG principles into a national development plan.
Then there is geography. The deep, windy waters of the North Atlantic are perfect for the deployment of floating offshore wind turbines at scale. The ambitions of the proposed Celtic Sea Cluster offshore wind partnership underpin Net Zero Wales – and make it possible.
Burggraaf says the intention for the CSC is that it will have "the first four gigawatts operational by 2030, and there is potential for 25GW, if not more, by 2040.
"This is going to be a huge development," he said. "As the Welsh affairs select committee said this month, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Wales."
The aim is to land the green energy in Milford Haven, a deep-water port which already has UK-wide strategic importance for importing liquified natural gas (LGN). But the electricity won’t just feed the grid: importantly it will be used to manufacture competitively priced green hydrogen, to displace fossil fuels for the hard-to-abate industries in South Wales, as well as for heating. New and expanded industries to support these plans could include battery manufacture (Clydach, near Swansea, has a nickel refinery), EV recycling and net zero high-grade steel.
Plans off the drawing board
This net zero scenario might seem far off. But, Burggraaf explains, it is already well off the drawing board. The Pembroke Net Zero Centre (PNZC), for example, shows energy company RWE's pathway to achieving carbon neutrality for its five gas-fired turbines by 2035.
Other developments include the HyLine Cymru project from Wales & West Utilities, a proposed pipeline from Milford Haven to Port Talbot in Swansea Bay, that would connect low-carbon hydrogen production to industrial demand. Powered by the Celtic Sea Cluster, the pipeline would pave the way for commercial-scale hydrogen production for industry and home heating, potentially connecting to National Grid’s Project Union, a national hydrogen transmission system.
Milford Haven and Port Talbot are bidding to become a joint new freeport, which would create a magnet for inward investment in south-west Wales.
Three key things for net zero
The SWIC vision also includes plans to capture and export liquified carbon dioxide by tanker from Milford Haven and Port Talbot for storage, to nullify local emissions. But Burggraaf predicts that over the coming decades carbon dioxide will come to be regarded as a commodity, not waste, and possibly even piped back inland from underground reservoirs, for a new form of refining. It will provide a feedstock for a new generation of chemical processes and used to make sustainable aviation fuels, consumer products, such as clothes and shoes, and even food.
It is a leap of faith to see the combined elements of hydrogen and carbon as friends rather than foes and even, perhaps, to imagine that a net zero world is possible. But Burggraaf insists that it is. He argues: "To bring net zero about, you need three key things. You need the right regulatory framework, the right infrastructure and the right culture."
Wales is ahead on the regulatory framework thanks to its UK-leading legislation. Key to infrastructure will be competitively priced green energy, which Wales has great potential for, from its onshore wind and tidal sources, as well as floating turbines.
Culture is a tougher nut to crack. Burggraaf said: "We will need to have a culture in which we celebrate things that we are proud of and the fact that we are working towards a green ethical future. We need to be more Dutch, in Wales, and not be so modest about our achievements."
"We need a pragmatic, not a dogmatic approach, to enable the transition."
Advocates for the green industrial revolution, he suggests, need to explain more clearly what is needed to achieve their goal. "Net zero is like climbing Everest," he said, "and you can't physically do that unprepared. What most people don't understand is the scale of electricity generation that is needed to actually get rid of fossil fuels. We need a pragmatic, not a dogmatic approach, to enable the transition to this ultimate goal.
"To achieve legally binding carbon targets by 2030 and 2040, we will need to make sure that steelworks, power generation and other energy intensive industries in South Wales are largely decarbonised. In order to do that, we will have to use blue hydrogen, made from natural gas, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, whilst the renewable generation infrastructure is developing. That’s just a fact."
Ensuring a just transition
The rewards for success in South Wales, and in other parts of the UK slated for low carbon industrial clusters, such as Ellesmere Port in the north west and Teesside in the north east, will potentially be enormous – a genuine economic revival, redistributing prosperity from the south east, the only region to reap substantial rewards from the anti-industrial ‘big bang’ in the 1980s.
Along with Clydeside and the Scottish coalfields, these clusters are in the areas that made the UK into a global superpower during the first industrial revolution. But Burggraaf added: "The big mistake with all that prosperity was that the wealth that came from coal didn't land with the communities that mined it. One of the key things we need to make sure is that, in this new green industrial revolution, the transition is just, and that more of its wealth is retained by local communities.
"It would be great if Wales, in future, will be seen as the supplier of choice for green goods and service in Europe – that’s the ambition. But to achieve that there needs to be a change, in which we celebrate and are proud of what we do."