Alex Salmond, Scottish first minister, was highly delighted by these findings and said: "The potential Scottish capacity is of European significance, comparable with that of offshore Norway, and greater than the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany combined."

Ignacio Galán, chairman of Iberdrola, the Spanish energy group that owns ScottishPower even sees the potential to form a CCS technology industry in the UK on the same scale as North Sea oil and assured that Iberdrola is going to invest in Scotland and the rest of the UK in order to realise this potential.

Mr Salmond goes along with this argument and adds: "Electricity generated in Scottish power stations which are fitted with CO2 capture technology will be comparable in price to energy generation using other low-carbon technology". He even estimates that CCS development in Scotland could support 10.000 jobs.