The governmental Interdepartmental Task Group (ITG) issued its discussion paper on November, 30th, intending to facilitate initial consultation with stakeholders on the Cleaner Future for Power Stations commitment. Stakeholders can provide their submissions until December 24th, on the following policies:

–          To require all new coal-fired power stations to meet an emission standard by 2011 with reference to best practice coal-fired generation technology

–          To require all new coal-fired generators to retrofit CCS technologies within an appropriate time after they become commercially available

–          To extend the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program to cover all existing generators

–          The publication of National Energy and Greenhouse Reporting (NGER) data.

The discussion paper also suggests for each of these measures the way forward, to be commented by stakeholders’ views. As for the CCS-ready challenge, it recommends six mandatory requirements including the demonstration of sufficient space and access on site and within the facility to accommodate CO₂ capture and compression facilities for the majority of the plant’s CO₂ emissions and the estimation of the likely costs of retrofitting capture, transport and storage, the latter being considered as key criteria.

Access the press release on the Carbon Capture Journal website.