National Grid, Shell, SSE and Centrica are among 16 companies who have signalled their intention to apply for the UK’s £1bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) funding competition.

The government today published the list of companies to encourage collaboration among suppliers and further stimulate interest in the industry.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the 16 companies named are those who have indicated they will lead a bid, adding that numerous other organisations may be involved in the projects.

However, the department said it does not expect all parties who have expressed an interest to apply before the July 3 deadline.

DECC predicts the UK’s transferable skills from the oil and gas sector and large storage capacity for emissions captured from power plants and factories could result in a £6.5bn industry being established by the middle of the 2020s.

It relaunched its £1bn competition to accelerate the rollout of the technology last month after the first programme failed to deliver a winning entry.

A DECC spokesman said the volume of interest shown in the relaunched competition demonstrated that “the UK is back on track with CCS”.

“From the outset, we are working through collaboration with industry to ensure we make CCS a reality and importantly create the maximum return for what is one of the best offers anywhere in the world,” he added.

The companies to have expressed interest are: 2Co, Air Liquide, Alstom, Centrica (Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd.), Costain Energy & Process, CO2 Deepstore, Doosan Power Projects, National Grid, Peel Energy, Progressive Energy, Portland Gas Storage, SEQ, Shell, SSE, SSI, and Summit Power.