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St Helens’ ground-breaking Glass Futures takes the stage at COP26
Glass Futures will put the Liverpool City Region at the forefront of decarbonising the global glass industry, an event at COP26 in Glasgow has heard today.
Cllr David Baines (left) with Richard Katz from Glass Futures.
Councillor David Baines, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency and Renewable Energy and Leader of St Helens Borough Council, told the event how the £54 million project will create the world’s first openly accessible test and trial furnace facility, which will be used to deliver industry and government-backed R&D projects focused on decarbonising glass production, and also providing a platform for industry to test and trial their own commercial ideas on a state-of-the-art line, both collaboratively and individually.
Based in the traditional centre of the UK glass making industry in St Helens, Glass Futures is a unique, industry-backed Research and Technology Organisation, leading collaboration across some of the largest companies in the global glass industry and its supply chain, together with academia and local and central government.
Councillor Baines, who is also Leader of St Helens Borough Council, told the event:
Project delivery is led by Network Space on behalf of an innovative partnership created between Glass Futures, the global glass supply chain, Network Space, St Helens Borough Council, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and UKRI (UK Research and Innovation). This dynamic and fast-moving partnership has rapidly turned the Glass Futures concept into a worked up and deliverable scheme in less than two years.
The project will be funded through a mix of public and private investment.
Glass Futures is one of a raft of developments backed by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as it seeks to reach its goal to become net zero carbon at least decade ahead of national targets. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, will be at COP26 next week, outlining his vision of how the Liverpool City Region will achieve that.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:
The project has been awarded a £9m grant from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and secured a £15m UKRI grant to support the installation of a globally unique, experimental furnace and state of the art infrastructure, capable of melting 30 tonnes of glass per day in a safe experimental space. Glass sector companies will also contribute a further £20m in resource, time and equipment to support the project.
St Helens Borough Council will take a head lease of the building to facilitate the development and deliver a green recovery.
Councillor Baines continued:
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