The UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced it will support 25 businesses adopting emissions-cutting projects with £51.9 million as part of the Plan for Change to drive economic growth and rebuild Britain.

The funding awarded is part of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), a government fund that supports the development and deployment of technologies that enable businesses with high energy use to transition to a low carbon future.

With industry paying for around two thirds of the project costs to cut emissions, the £51.9 million funding will help businesses of all sizes expand and innovate, supporting new jobs through construction and operations, and helping to cut energy bills and boost local growth across the country.

Nestlé’s coffee processing site in Staffordshire, Heinz’s baked bean factory in Wigan, and a specialist craft beer company in Cornwall are among those benefitting from grants which will deliver emissions-cutting technology such as heat pumps and carbon capture.

Clean energy industries have been identified as key to reigniting the UK’s industrial heartlands and grow the economy. Alongside the government’s Plan for Change to make Britain a clean energy superpower, driving economic growth and rebuilding Britain, the upcoming Industrial Strategy will also give investors and industry confidence to plan for the next decade and beyond.

Heinz, which received over £2.5 million and invested nearly £5 million of their own funding in the project, will use the funding to switch its dependence on fossil fuels to heat water, needed to blanch beans and boil spaghetti hoops, by installing heat pumps that reuse waste heat from other processes in the factory – improving energy efficiency to cut emissions and bills for the business, and allowing them to invest more in other areas.

Hanson Cement in North Wales will use its £5.6 million grant to support its multi-million-pound carbon capture and storage project, creating hundreds of jobs during construction and capturing 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year once operational – the equivalent of taking 320,000 cars off the road.

As well as support for individual businesses, setting them up for a more sustainable future by cutting energy costs and streamlining production, the government recently confirmed that contracts have been signed for the UK’s first carbon capture project in Teesside, marking the latest milestone in the government’s mission to tackle the climate crisis and turbocharge growth for decades to come.