Diversified business conglomerate Essar Group has launched an investment programme — Essar Energy Transition (EET) — through which it will invest a total of $3.6 billion in developing a range of low-carbon energy transition projects over the next five years. The investments would be made in the UK and India.
Through its energy transition arm EET, the group plans to raise $2.4 billion across its site at Stanlow, between Liverpool and Manchester, and $1.2 billion in India.
The investments in India are to develop a cost-efficient global supply hub for low-carbon fuels in India, including green hydrogen and green ammonia. Ammonia will be shipped from India to the UK, Europe and globally to meet expanding market demand for green hydrogen.
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“The launch of EET is a major milestone in Essar’s long-standing commitment to put the UK at the forefront of low-carbon energy. We are excited about the opportunity to drive the UK’s energy transition by producing low-carbon future fuels which will help eliminate around 20% of the industrial carbon dioxide in Northwest England. In doing so, it will provide a blueprint for how traditional industries globally can be successfully transformed into hubs for the production of future energies,” Prashant Ruia, director at Essar Capital, the investment arm of the group, said.
EET’s investment programme will play a major role in accelerating the UK’s low-carbon transformation, supporting the government’s decarbonisation policy and creating highly-skilled employment opportunities at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse economy.
The investments, across a range of hydrogen production technologies, decarbonisation, biofuels (road and aviation) and infrastructure projects will contribute to North West England quickly becoming one of the leading post-carbon industrial clusters in Europe. These investments will support the reduction of around 3.5 million tonne of carbon dioxide, around 20% of the total industrial emissions in Northwest England.
The EET will include Essar Oil UK, the company’s refining and marketing business in Northwest England; Vertex Hydrogen, which is developing 1 gigawatt of blue hydrogen for the UK market, with follow-on capacity set to reach 3.8GW and EET Future Energy, which is developing 1 GW of green ammonia in India, targeted at UK and international markets. It will also include Stanlow Terminals, which is developing enabling storage and pipeline infrastructure and EET Biofuels, which is investing in developing 1 MT of low carbon biofuels.
“EET’s ambitious investment plans will not only help deliver the UK’s net zero ambitions and the enormous environmental benefits therein, but will also secure the long term sustainable future for Stanlow, protecting and creating new highly-skilled job opportunities at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse economy for generations to come,” Tony Fountain, managing partner at Essar Energy Transition, said.
EET’s strategy is based on the fact that hydrogen and biofuels are fast becoming globally significant fuels of the future and that the UK is positioned strongly to spearhead the rapid growth of the European low-carbon fuels market.
The UK already benefits from an advanced regulatory and policy framework to support low carbon energy production, including the UK government’s target of achieving 10 GW of hydrogen production by 2030, alongside developing low carbon hydrogen infrastructure, expertise and significant customer demand.