Opponents of mandatory CCS have claimed that one cannot make mandatory something which has not yet been demonstrated at the scale needed.

However, in a press release following Chris Davies’ announcement of his intentions, Alstom welcomed the setting of a date for mandating the fitting of CCS to fossil fuel power generation. It said this would send a clear signal to markets to encourage investment in a range of CCS technologies and that it would establish a level playing field to remove some of the risks associated with developing new technologies at commercial scale.

Aker Clean Carbon, another supplier of CO2 capture technology, said it would also be ready to deliver in time.

“Aker Clean Carbon will be ready to deliver full-scale CO2 capture plants prior to January 1st 2015. We are confident about this as we are currently testing and verifying our technology in small and medium-sized capture facilities. We are also participating in the tender for delivering a full-scale capture installation to the gas-fired power plant at Kårstø in Norway. The installation is on schedule to be operational in 2012. Aker Clean Carbon is one of four pre-qualified suppliers in the tender,” Knut Sanden, Aker Clean Carbon’s project manager for the Kårstø capture installation, told Bellona Web.