London: Tata Steel has announced plans to help shape regional efforts in South Wales to decrease carbon emissions, aimed at creating the world's first net-zero industrial cluster.
As a leading member of the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC), the Indian steel major said on Friday that its plan could see Tata's integrated steelworks at Port Talbot in the region playing a major role as one of four possible anchor sites.
The first phase of SWIC's Roadmap and Deployment project received a significant boost thanks to grant funding of GBP 295,000 from UK Research and Innovation — a partnership of universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government — with more funding available for future stages.
"SWIC presents a key opportunity to support Wales' net zero ambitions by uniting the various decarbonisation programmes in South Wales into a single roadmap for the first time," said Chris Williams, Manager Energy Research at Tata Steel in Europe.
"By helping to develop an industrial strategy, which allows companies in Wales to grow while also reducing CO2 emissions, the plan will create new jobs and provide a sustainable industrial base for future generations," he said.
The announcement is one of a number of initiatives to help Tata Steel's European business achieve its ambition of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
Phase one of the project will create a plan for a series of local zero-carbon areas to lower emissions, create skilled jobs and enhance well-being across South Wales.
If SWIC projects proceed successfully, they will improve the UK's ability to locally manufacture steel products with low carbon emissions, helping to drive the low-carbon future of UK construction and other sectors such as defence, car manufacturing, packaging and even coin production.
The SWIC initiatives will also make a vital contribution to the economic resilience of the Welsh economy by bringing in new high-skilled jobs and ensuring operations are sustainable in the long term, Tata Steel said.
Key areas for SWIC in the first phase of the project include examining the infrastructure required for the development of the hydrogen economy, for large scale CO2 capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and transport.
Other partners in SWIC include Costain, CR Plus, RWE, Progressive Energy, University of South Wales, Celsa Manufacturing, Tarmac, Valero Energy, Progressive Energy, Capital Law, Flexible Process Consultants the Port of Milford Haven and Vale Europe.
Tata Steel is one of Europe's leading steel producers, with steelmaking in the Netherlands and the UK, and manufacturing plants across Europe.
The company supplies high-quality steel products across a wide range of sectors, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering.
It is currently said to be in talks with the UK government for support through the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
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