The Scottish government has announced it will help fund Pale Blue Dot Energy’s Acorn carbon capture and storage and hydrogen project in the North Sea off north-east Scotland. The money is part of a wider £62 million (US$78 million/€69 million) North East Energy Transition Fund that aims to “ensure the country is able to lead and indeed benefit from Scotland’s necessary transition to a Net Zero economy”, as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described. Pale Blue Dot is hoping to have the project, which was awarded the UK’s first CO₂ appraisal and storage license, up and running as early as 2024; a front end engineering design contract was finalised with UK-based energy services firm Petrofac earlier this month. The CCS part of Acorn aims to use existing oil and gas infrastructure to store carbon dioxide under the sea floor, while the hydrogen part of the project would make ‘blue’ hydrogen from North Sea natural gas, with captured carbon being sequestered in the same storage site as other CO₂, creating a neat join between the two parts.