The global economy is making the transition to a low-carbon future, which is vital to retaining safe levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This includes the construction industry, which is increasingly moving towards sustainable building methods and materials.

Modern society needs cement and lime, but we must find ways to produce them sustainably. Carbon dioxide is an unavoidable by-product of cement and lime manufacturing as it comes from the limestone itself. Simply switching to electricity or low carbon fuels in the manufacturing process would not substantially reduce emissions from these industries, so capturing and storing the carbon dioxide is the only viable option.

The UK is well-placed to create a new market for green cement and lime thanks to abundant high-grade limestone resources and vast offshore reservoirs that are ideal for the permanent storage of captured CO₂.

Peak Cluster will help secure a sustainable domestic supply of materials that are critical for UK infrastructure and industries. It will help us build a resilient low-carbon cement industry — to get Britain building and to export high quality products across the globe — creating jobs, strengthening communities and powering economic growth.

Overall, the project will safeguard and create more than 13,000 jobs, ensure a sustainable, domestic supply of building material to support the delivery of vital infrastructure, attract around £5 billion of investment into the UK, and generate around £1.8 billion in value for the economy.

From 2030, Peak Cluster will cut over 3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year, which is almost a quarter of annual emissions for the region, and support the industry’s transition to carbon neutral products.

Four major cement and lime producers have come together to form Peak Cluster, a project aiming to secure a sustainable future for the UK’s cement and lime industries.

The infrastructure we develop will capture the CO₂ as it is emitted, before transporting it via a proposed pipeline to be stored under the seabed in Morecambe Bay.

Peak Cluster will be the world’s largest cement decarbonisation project, bringing significant investment to the region, protecting existing jobs and creating thousands of new roles during construction.

The project team, and specialist consultants, are currently establishing the best locations for Peak Cluster’s proposed pipeline route and infrastructure. In parallel, the cement and lime plants are deciding on the most suitable technology and location on their existing for the facilities which will capture the carbon dioxide emissions.

To determine the best locations and approach for the infrastructure – including the underground pipeline, supporting infrastructure and the carbon capture facilities – we will be undertaking detailed environmental studies and asking for input from local communities and stakeholders in consultations in 2026.

Progressive Energy is leading the development of the project alongside Holcim’s Cauldon plant, Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant, Buxton Lime’s lime works at Tunstead and Breedon’s Hope plant. Each will each develop carbon capture facilities at their sites. These will link to the pipeline which will transport the captured emissions to the carbon storage facility.

The project is being funded through a combination of private and public investment.

In July 2025, the UK National Wealth Fund (NWF) announced a £28.6m equity investment to support the development of Peak Cluster. This government-approved investment has helped to unlock tens of millions of pounds in private funding from the industry partners, and provides a route for the taxpayer to benefit from the project.

Peak Cluster will use a technology called Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted from entering the atmosphere. The CCS process captures the carbon dioxide emissions before transporting it in an underground pipeline to a secure storage site.

We will capture up to 95% of the CO₂ emissions currently being emitted as cement and lime is produced on site at the plants. The CO₂ will then be compressed so that it can be transported safely by underground pipeline, to be stored in carefully selected depleted gas reservoirs underneath the seabed under Morecambe Bay in the East Irish Sea.

Modern society needs cement and lime, but we must find ways to produce them sustainably.

Carbon dioxide is released as an unavoidable by-product of cement and lime manufacturing. Simply switching to electricity or low carbon fuels would not substantially reduce emissions from these industries; therefore capturing and storing the carbon dioxide is the only option. Peak Cluster will cut over 3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year, which is almost a quarter of annual emissions for the region, and support the industry’s transition to produce carbon neutral products.

The UK is well-placed to create a new market for green cement and lime thanks to abundant high-grade limestone resources and vast offshore reservoirs that are ideal for the permanent storage of captured CO₂.

In the early feasibility studies, we considered a range of options to deliver cement decarbonisation, to ensure that any project to remove carbon emissions from the plants would be delivered in the most efficient way possible. The two most viable options were:

1. Move the cement and lime production plants to the coast and transport the raw materials from where they are found naturally in the Peak District by rail or road (our research suggests around 1,000 HGV movements a day and 10 long trains per day).
2. Capture and transport the carbon emissions to the coast via a new pipeline buried underground.

In order to sustain a cement and lime industry within the UK, which can also remain globally competitive, the Peak Cluster cement and lime manufacturers have come together to jointly develop the infrastructure which enables them to transition to low carbon production. To do so, it is vital to capture the emissions at source.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is widely recognised as an important technology to decarbonise the cement and lime industry.  Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK’s Committee on Climate Change agree that this is an essential step to ensuring the sustainable production of these vital materials in the UK.

Capturing and storing carbon dioxide is a safe, proven process that is already being carried out in a range of industries around the world including Norway’s Sleipner and Snohvit projects, which have been capturing a million tonnes of CO₂ each year for 27 years and 15 years respectively.

There are many other projects being developed globally including Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood in Flintshire and Encyclis’ Energy from Waste plant in Cheshire.

Broadly, the project can be segmented into three sections, each with their own infrastructure requirements:

Carbon capture

Carbon capture facilities will be required at the four cement and lime plants in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Each plant is exploring the best type of technology for its unique circumstances. The appearance and footprint of each capture facility will depend on the technology selected. We will know more information on these facilities in time for the public consultation in 2026.

Carbon dioxide transportation

We will build an underground pipeline to transport the carbon dioxide emissions from the cement and lime plants to the store.  We anticipate that the pipeline itself will have a diameter of around 24-36 inches. Once the pipeline is constructed, we will restore the land above to its original condition. There will be no infrastructure visible from ground level, aside from some small marker posts.

Along the pipeline route, we will also develop a series of Above Ground Installations (or AGIs) and Block Valve Stations (BVS).

• Above Ground Installations (AGIs) are key points along the pipeline to ensure that the system can run efficiently and safely. They make it easier to carry out regular maintenance checks.
• Block Valve Stations (BVSs) are also located at regular intervals along the pipeline, and can isolate sections when required, ensuring safety when carrying out with maintenance or preventing danger in unlikely emergencies.

Carbon dioxide storage: Before carbon dioxide goes into permanent storage, we need to transfer it between the land and the sea.  To do this we need to develop:

• Underground storage
• Compressor stations that pressurise the CO₂

We will ensure that our infrastructure is designed to capture as much carbon dioxide as possible. As part of the carbon capture sites’ Environmental Permits, which is a condition for them to operate, we are expecting the Environment Agency to set out minimum levels that each site must capture. This is a heavily regulated process to ensure the highest standards of safety and efficiency.

In our early feasibility studies, we looked at different ways to reduce carbon emissions from cement and lime plants to find the most efficient approach. The two options were:

1. Move the cement and lime plants to the coast and transport the raw materials from the Peak District via road or rail (around 1,000 HGV trucks and 10 long trains per day).
2. Capture the carbon emissions at the existing plants and transport them via a new underground pipeline to the coast

After reviewing both, we decided that the option with the least disruption and the most long-term environmental and economic benefits was to build an underground pipeline to carry carbon dioxide from plants in Derbyshire and Staffordshire to a storage site under the seabed at Morecambe Bay.

The Peak Cluster team is considering all options and working to determine the best route for the pipeline.

We have already determined a wide search area (land where the pipeline could potentially be laid) which will take into account built-up areas, existing infrastructure and areas of environmental importance such as Delamere Forest and Alderley Edge and Jodrell Bank and Solomon’s Temple to ensure the location of the pipeline is appropriate and causes the least disruption to the local area.

Our teams are now beginning to carry out detailed environmental studies which, along with a public consultation in 2026, which will help us to determine a more specific route for the pipeline within this search area.

The North West is heavily populated with energy intensive industry which must be decarbonised  to ensure the businesses located there remain viable as the UK transitions to a low-carbon future. Like Peak Cluster, HyNet is developing the infrastructure to unlock ways for this industry to decarbonise.

However, HyNet and Peak Cluster are two distinct projects, with separate timelines which do not align.  We intend to connect the Peak Cluster pipeline to Spirit Energy’s Morecambe Net Zero (MNZ) for CO₂ storage, because it has the capacity to store the levels of carbon dioxide we need to lock away and because it will be ready at the same time as Peak Cluster begins to capture carbon dioxide.

To store the amount of carbon dioxide produced by industry, both projects are needed for the UK industry to continue to operate in a low carbon future.  Liverpool Bay CCS, which serves HyNet, has a smaller capacity than MNZ – it can take around 190 million tonnes of CO₂ whereas MNZ will have a capacity close to 1 billion tonnes of CO₂. For that reason, the Liverpool Bay CCS pipeline could not store the CO₂ captured by Peak Cluster – which we anticipate will require the transportation of over 3 million tonnes every year.

The transportation of gas and liquid via pipeline has occurred for more than one hundred years. In the UK, there are currently approximately 27,000km of high-pressure pipelines carrying natural gas and a range of other fluids, including aviation fuel, ethylene and other chemical products.

The UK has a wealth of experience in designing, constructing and operating pipelines to transport gas. The practice is a very well-established and robustly regulates technology, for which the UK has earned a global reputation for safety. The standards for pipelines to transport CO₂ streams are recognised as being the most cautious in the world, and the design and operation is regularly scrutinised by the Health and Safety Executive.

We will ensure rigorous monitoring mechanisms are in place along the CO₂ pipeline. The operation of the pipeline will be monitored continuously, and block valves will be used to safely shut down the pipeline should the need arise. Regular inspections of the pipeline will take place to monitor the condition of the pipeline.

There are well understood geological formations under the seabed in the East Irish Sea which can store CO₂. This includes depleted natural gas fields in Morecambe Bay with sufficient capacity for storage requirements for CO₂ from across the region for the foreseeable future.

Carbon capture and storage is a well-established, proven technology. For example, there are projects which have been successfully storing CO₂ for more than 25 years.

Carbon storage utilises depleted gas reservoirs, which are typically between 0.8-3km below the seabed.  Natural gas has remained safely trapped in geological structures deep below the surface of the seabed, such as sandstone reservoirs, for millions of years, under an impermeable layer of hundreds of metres of shale, mudstones, and salt. We have extracted this gas, for uses such as heating our homes, meaning we understand the structures very well.  Now the reservoirs are empty and ready for their next phase of life – supporting us with a transition to a low carbon future – CO₂ will be stored within MNZ in the same way as the natural gas has been for millions of years.

CO₂ storage sites are carefully chosen to ensure the highest confidence in permanent storage and there are rigorous checks and monitoring procedures to ensure the CO₂ remains safely stored. These procedures are required by carbon capture and storage regulations before a project is allowed to proceed.

A full assessment of the integrity of the MNZ store will be undertaken, as required by the regulator prior to licensing of an undersea storage site. The integrity of the store will then be monitored throughout the filling and long-term storage phases.

Arrangements for monitoring the store once carbon dioxide has begun to be stored are still under development, but it is expected that after the storage site is closed, Spirit Energy, the owners of MNZ, will be responsible for monitoring any CO₂ leakage and resolving any issues until the responsibility is handed over to the national authorities. This monitoring is expected to continue for at least 20 years before the handover.

The cement and lime industry has been a part of the region’s rich industrial heritage for more than a century.  However, as we move into the future low carbon economy, the sector needs to adopt new, sustainable ways of operation and production.

Peak Cluster will enable this transition, ensuring the region remains an attractive location for the cement and lime plants, providing jobs and stimulating investment.

In doing so, the project will:

• Protect around 2,000 existing jobs at the cement plants in Derbyshire and Staffordshire
• Create around 1,500 jobs during the construction phase of the project

Together, Peak Cluster and the Morecambe Net Zero (MNZ) offshore storage facility will safeguard and create more than 13,000 jobs by 2050.

Cement and lime are essential to our way of life, and the UK economy. The cement sector produces a vital material, essential to the production of concrete that is, in turn, used to build the nation’s infrastructure including roads, railways, bridges, buildings and homes.

Historically, the UK has been virtually self-sufficient in cement production, with 75%-80% of the cement used in the UK (of which around 40% comes from the producers in the Peak District which this project will decarbonise) produced in the UK. By comparison, 80% of timber and 60% of steel is imported from around the world, competing with UK manufacturing.

Lime is a strategically important product for the UK. It is a fundamental, but often unseen, ingredient for many key UK industries. Not only is lime fundamental to construction and manufacturing industries, but it is also used to purify drinking water, remove toxic chemicals from soil and groundwater, and make steel and glass.

The UK has plenty of secure, long-term sources of the raw materials needed to make lime and cement – especially in areas like the Peak District – helping the country stay self-sufficient.

These vital industries have provided jobs for generations of families and boosted the local economy. In the Peak District alone over 1,000 people are directly employed in the production of cement and lime.

However, UK production of these vital materials is falling. Cement production now at its lowest level since the 1950s, and we’re currently importing a third of what we use from overseas, leaving us vulnerable to price increases and supply issues. To remain competitive on the world stage, we must transition to more sustainable production processes – which Peak Cluster will enable.

The Peak District’s unique geology and extensive mineral deposits mean that the cement and lime industries have been a feature of its landscape and part of its rich industrial heritage for more than a century.

The Peak District has the potential to produce what will be some of the first low carbon cement and lime products anywhere in the world.

The alternative, to relocate the production of cement and lime out of the Peak District, would mean that quarried limestone and other materials would need to be transported by road or rail from the Peak District to the production facilities. This would lead to a substantial, and disruptive, rise in road and rail freight, as well as additional transport emissions.

Globally, we use around 4 billion tonnes of cement every year. This is approximately 14 billion cubic metres of concrete. By 2050, the Global Cement & Concrete Association expects the cement production to rise to around 20 billion cubic metres as population growth and urbanisation increases in Latin America, India and Africa. This is often compared to the construction of a new New York every month between now and 2050. Because it already has a lot of well-developed infrastructure, the UK uses a much lower amount of cement and concrete each year per capita, but its cement market still equates to around 15 million tonnes per year.

The short answer is yes, although it should be noted that concrete is the second most used substance on the planet, after water. This means that, even after reductions have been made, concrete usage will still be incredibly high and so action beyond reducing its use is essential as we tackle climate change.

In the developing world, concrete use is increasing. To keep levels of cement use (and production) static, the construction sector is aiming to reduce the amount of cement used in concrete by improving efficiencies at every point along the value chain, from design, to construction, to reuse and recycling at the end of life. It is anticipated that this increased efficiency can offset increased demand to help cement use remain static, otherwise the predicted use of cement would grow from 4 to 5 billion tonnes.

Historically, the two main alternatives to concrete for construction purposes have been either steel or timber, though neither material can offer the versatility that cement does. Currently, steel is even more carbon intensive per tonne than concrete, although that sector also has plans to decarbonise via both increased recycling rates and novel production methods.

Whilst timber can also be used, currently around 80% of the UK’s construction timber is imported – making it a more expensive option than it would be if we were to produce it domestically, which means that it often becomes unaffordable, particularly at a time when budgets are stretched.

Reducing these imports would require huge areas of land to be dedicated to timber production, as timber requires around 50 times more land to support the same amount of construction as an aggregates quarry. If just 25% of the concrete used globally each year was replaced by timber, the total global forest cover would need to increase by about 14%, a land area one and a half times the size of India.

These timber-producing forests also tend to be monocultures (i.e., planted with just one species of fast-growing trees), which means biodiversity is limited. Timber construction also poses other potential issues, such as flood- and fire-resistance.

This region is loved for its exceptional landscape and wildlife. Peak Cluster’s delivery partners have a strong track-record of protecting and enhancing the natural environment and are committed to maintaining the highest standards wherever they operate.

Peak Cluster will avoid sensitive habitats, and after the pipeline is installed, we will restore the land above to its original condition, including replanting or replacing any hedges, walls or fences.

We have committed to increasing biodiversity across the entire project area – including the Peak District and along the proposed route through Cheshire and the Wirral peninsula. We will work carefully, and in close collaboration with local stakeholders, using restoration activities to have a positive influence on the landscape. ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’ means that habitats for wildlife must be left in a measurably better state than they were before the development. This is a legal requirement for major infrastructure projects such as Peak Cluster and one that we take very seriously.

We will construct our new on-site carbon dioxide capture plants on brownfield land, wherever possible, and carry out construction and carbon capture operations in ways that protect wildlife and natural habitats.

As a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP), Peak Cluster will need to submit a type of planning application called a Development Consent Order to the government’s Planning Inspectorate. The final decision on whether Peak Cluster will receive planning approval will be made by the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.

During the development of the project, alongside our continuous engagement, we will undertake periods of consultation across the next year (2026). We will liaise closely with stakeholders including local councils and the Peak District National Park Authority, Natural England and Historic England.

We understand how important the cement and lime industry is to the region, and also how much the local environment means to the communities living in and around it.

Gaining input from a wide range of stakeholders is critically important and will help us develop a project that is able to anticipate, understand and address potential local impacts.

Throughout the project, we will work closely with communities and organisations to develop an approach that minimises disruption and impact, and ensures work is delivered safely and efficiently.

We will listen closely to those who are interested or may be affected by Peak Cluster to hear their thoughts, views and suggestions and let you know how your feedback has shaped our thinking.

We will be running:

• Community drop-in events
• Webinars
• Attending community events
• Attending local meetings
• Consultations

We will be holding two stages of consultation on the project, where you will be able to formally provide your feedback on our proposals. These are currently scheduled for early 2026 and late 2026, respectively.  When we are not in periods of formal consultation, we are still keen to hear from you, listen to your views and answer any questions you may have.  Please contact us using the details below.

• Email: consultation@peakcluster.co.uk
• Call us on 0800 0129 167
• Write to us at FREEPOST PEAK CLUSTER

Yes, we will be holding a range of in-person events and online webinars during consultation periods. We anticipate that our Phase 1 consultation events will take place in early 2026 and our Phase 2 consultation events will take place in late 2026.

If you have any general enquiries about Peak Cluster and our consultation process, you can get in touch by:

• Emailing: consultation@peakcluster.co.uk
• Calling us on 0800 0129 167
• Writing to us at FREEPOST PEAK CLUSTER

If you are a landowner, or your question concerns land, please contact our Lands team by emailing peakcluster@adas.co.uk.

Before we submit the plans for our proposed project to the Planning Inspectorate, we will develop a Construction and Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) which sets out our specific approach to constructing the project, including our approach to laying the pipeline.

Whilst we do not have all the details yet, we want to take an iterative approach to delivering the pipeline, scheduling small packages of work that will each be delivered in a relatively short timeframe. Our aim is to keep impacts on landowners to a minimum, and coordinate works at road crossings to reduce disruption to the local road network.