CCS technology ‘ready to be deployed’

CCS, which is designed to trap CO2 emissions from various industrial sources and store them indefinitely underground, is one means of curbing the impacts of climate change.

Britain can show global leadership in tackling the problem of global warming by deploying CCS and exploiting our natural advantages to the full

Chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Group Ronald Oxburgh

However until now, CCS was deemed too expensive to implement. But the Group's report states CCS technology can be deployed at a price of £85/MWh over a 15-year period.

That is “significantly below” the requirements for nuclear power and comparable to many renewable options, the Group said.

Its report, which has been delivered to business, energy and industry secretary Greg Clark, outlines a six-point plan designed to “free the logjam” that has blocked the development and implementation of CCS technology in the UK.

The plan recommends that the UK government should create a new publicly-owned CCS Delivery Company, similar in concept to the Olympics Delivery Authority or Crossrail, to kickstart the technology’s implementation.

It also calls for the consideration of financial measures to support CCS based on the government’s existing contracts-for-difference scheme offered to renewable electricity providers.

Other recommendations include the creation of a Heat Transfer Group, as well as the introduction of a CCS certificates and obligation scheme.

The Group said that a CO2 pipeline network will also provide the means of reducing carbon emissions from industrial sources and from the heating of more than 20 million homes.

Meanwhile, CCS would also create thousands of jobs, giving a huge boost to the economic regeneration of some of Britain’s oldest industrial centres such as Teesside and Grangemouth, the Group added.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Group and geophysicist Ronald Oxburgh, said: “Britain can show global leadership in tackling the problem of global warming by deploying CCS and exploiting our natural advantages to the full. 

“We can dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions, create tens of thousands of jobs, and give our domestic industry a great stimulus by making use of technologies which are now well understood and fully proven.”

However, Oxburgh said the plan would require government intervention and leadership.

“The private sector is not institutionally capable of developing the necessary pipeline and storage network, and in common with major projects such as the delivery of the London Olympics the role of the public sector will be crucial in the early years.

“We believe that there will be strong cross-party support for our proposals, and we hope that the new secretary of state will take full advantage of this enormous opportunity.”

Manufacturers’ organisation EEF welcomed the report's strategy for CCS.

"This report is on the money and it is imperative that the government takes its findings and recommendations seriously," said Claire Jakobsson, head of energy and climate policy at EEF.

“Once again we have a report indicating that CCS technology offers the most cost-effective decarbonisation route for the UK, that CCS fitted power plants could easily be cost competitive with established forms of low carbon power and, crucially, that there are no technological barriers to rapid deployment.

“Most importantly, from an industrial perspective, the report confirms what many in industry have been saying for years; CCS provides the only route to decarbonisation for many industrial processes," Jakobsson added.

She also warned that “no CCS means no decarbonisation and rising carbon costs”.

“The report’s recognition of the significant financial barriers to CCS deployment at steel, cement and chemical plants, and the proposed policy solutions, are enormously welcome.”