Today’s announcement is excellent news for Bellona and the whole CCS community. CCS projects taking off the ground is what is needed the most at the moment, especially after NER300 failing to deliver any CCS funding in its first round. It is clear that the UK will now be at the forefront of the European CCS investment, moving in the direction of cost competitive CCS industry.

The projects
The White Rose Project in Yorkshire, England, and the Peterhead Project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, were chosen from a shortlist of four after an intensive period of commercial negotiations.

The White Rose is an oxyfuel capture project at a proposed new 304MW fully abated supercritical coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire. The project involves capturing 90% of the CO₂ from a new coal-fired power station, before transporting to and finally storing it in a saline aquifer beneath the North Sea.

The Peterhead Project would capture 85% of the CO₂ from part of the existing gas fired power station at Peterhead. The CO₂ would then be transported and stored in depleted gas fields beneath the North Sea. Peterhead has previously been considered for a CCS project in the mid 2000’s.

The future of the UK CCS Competition
The € 1.2 billion of capital funding made available under the UK CCS Commercialisation Competition will support the practical experience in the design, construction and operation of commercial-scale CCS. More specifically the funding is meant to;
– generate learning that will help drive down the costs of CCS;
– test and build familiarity with the CCS specific regulatory framework;
– encourage industry to develop suitable CCS business models;
– contribute to the development of early infrastructure for CO₂ transport and storage.

Following today’s announcement UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Edward Davey, said that “[this] moves us a significant step closer to a Carbon Capture and Storage industry – an industry which will help reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs”.

The Government will now undertake discussions with the two preferred bidders to agree terms by the summer for Front End Engineering Design studies, which will last approximately 18 months. A final investment decision will be taken by the Government in early 2015 on the construction of up to two projects.

For more information on CCS and prospective project, please visit Bellona’s CCS web.