Drax Group plc, Equinor ASA and National Grid Ventures Ltd. announced a partnership to construct a large-scale carbon capture usage and storage network and a hydrogen production facility in the Humber region of the U.K. in the mid-2020s.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding following the U.K. Committee on Climate Change's "Net Zero" report, which concluded that the development of carbon capture usage and storage systems and hydrogen technology in regional industrial clusters is "essential" for the U.K. to achieve a "net zero" carbon economy by 2050, according to a May 28 news release.

The companies plan to explore opportunities to scale up a bionenergy carbon capture and storage pilot project at the Drax Power Station, explore the potential development of a large-scale hydrogen demonstrator within the Drax site by as early as the mid-2020s and look at other opportunities to develop a hydrogen economy in the region.

Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire already captures a tonne of CO2 daily from its bioenergy carbon capture and storage pilot project.

National Grid Ventures is a unit of U.K.-based National Grid PLC.