Padeswood carbon capture and storage (CCS) project

Project summary

RSK has successfully supported Heidelberg Materials UK in achieving planning permission for the company’s proposed Padeswood carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in North Wales – which is set to be the first carbon-capture-enabled cement works in the UK – representing a groundbreaking milestone for the cement industry.

The background

RSK’s support of Heidelberg Materials UK saw planning permission for the Padeswood CCS project in North Wales achieved five months ahead of schedule. No planning hearings were required, and the planning permission was agreed through written representations.

RSK Environment acted as environment, consents and permitting lead, including coordinating the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and project managing the development of national significance (DNS) application.

Multidisciplinary approach

RSK Environment was able to draw on the skills and experience of 12 additional RSK Group businesses, including Joanna Berlyn, Planning Director, from Stephenson Halliday as planning lead and Copper Consultancy as communications lead.

RSK considers the project to be an impressive example of how the group can draw on its broad range of multidisciplinary skills to achieve a major infrastructure planning application. The combined RSK team compiled and submitted 113 documents as part of its contribution to the planning submission. The 13 businesses involved in the DNS application were:

1. RSK Environment (EIA coordination, geographic information system and environmental permitting)
2. Stephenson Halliday (planning and landscape and visual)
3. ADAS Land (land referencing)
4. Copper Consultancy (communications and public affairs)
5. Nature Positive (climate)
6. RSK Acoustics (noise and vibration)
7. RSK Biocensus (biodiversity)
8. RSK Air Quality (air quality)
9. RSK ADAS (arboriculture and soils)
10. RSK Geosciences (land and soils, material assets and waste)
11. RSK Land and Development Engineering (water)
12. Headland Archaeology (cultural heritage)
13. SCP Transport (traffic and transport).

Separately, Envireau Water was contracted directly by Heidelberg Materials’ sustainability team to assess whether the cooling water requirement for the CCS scheme could be supported by groundwater abstraction.

The performance of two existing water supply boreholes was verified through extensive field testing, managed and overseen by Envireau Water. The impacts of abstraction were further assessed through a numerical modelling exercise to support an abstraction licence application to Natural Resources Wales (NRW). A high level of regulatory negotiation was required given NRW’s concerns about the sensitivity of the regional water environment and limited water available for licensing.

The challenges

1. After being appointed to the project, the project design was in its infancy. RSK advised the client that it would be beneficial to the EIA and planning team to become involved in pre-FEED design meetings to ensure the design would be robust for set milestones in the planning and consenting programme.
2. Heidelberg Materials UK challenged RSK to submit the planning application six weeks after the statutory pre-application consultation finished. On comparable projects, this process takes months, if not years, to achieve, but RSK was pleased to galvanise its multidisciplinary expertise to rise to the challenge.

The solutions

1. RSK held regular meetings with Heidelberg Materials UK and the pre-FEED team to ensure the project design was planning focused, reducing the risk of delay through the consenting process. Members of the planning and EIA team attended key design workshops to ensure the design and accompanying plans were suitable for the EIA to progress. RSK developed a positive working relationship with the pre-FEED team and a clear communication channel between both parties was established, allowing for the free flow of project information. This interaction among the project team played a part in the planning permission being secured five months ahead of schedule.
2. RSK advised Heidelberg Materials UK to engage with key consultees as early as possible in the project programme to establish relationships with key decision-makers and bring them along on the project consenting journey. Heidelberg Materials UK along with Copper Consultancy worked closely with senior staff within the Welsh Government to emphasise the national need for the Padeswood CCS project. Heidelberg Materials UK entered into planning performance agreements with the local planning authorities and used pre-application advice services with several key consultees. Using such mechanisms gave decision-makers early access to the design, plans and assessment, allowing the project team to obtain an early understanding of their views and thoughts. These opinions could be fed back to the design team to ensure the project design was stakeholder focused, reducing the risk of any surprises during the latter stages of the consenting process.
3. Once statutory pre-application consultation began, RSK Environment and Stephenson Halliday worked closely with Copper Consultancy to ensure responses were passed to the EIA and planning team as and when they were received within the six-week statutory pre-application consultation window. This enabled RSK Environment and Stephenson Halliday to address the comments, liaising with the relevant RSK Group business unit to assist. Following statutory pre-application consultation, RSK developed a tracker to synthesise all feedback from all consultees to show how the project responded to the feedback, whether the feedback resulted in a change and, if so, where that change was made in the planning application documents.

The impact

The Padeswood facility, which will connect to the HyNet project, aims to have the world’s first fully decarbonised cement production process and be a global exemplar for the deployment of carbon capture technology at an existing cement works site. Once operational, it will capture around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and around 95% of CO2 emissions from the existing Padeswood cement kiln. The project will be the furthest advanced carbon capture project at an operational cement works in the UK by some distance.

It is estimated that the Padeswood CCS project will create up to 500 additional jobs during the construction phase and around 50 direct, long-term operational employment opportunities. The project also proposes the creation of four new ponds, nine hibernacula and 17 refugia (places where amphibians can rest during the day and escape from predators and the sun and, in winter, where they will hibernate). It is envisaged that the planting of mixed deciduous woodland and the enhancement of grassland will cover an area of around 10.13 hectares, improve its value for great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) foraging and offer wider biodiversity benefits for other protected species.