UK shortlists candidates for £1bn CCS fund
31 Oct 2012
London – The government has revealed the four bidders to have been shortlisted for the next phase of the UK’s £1-billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition.
The four were selected, from eight bids received, based on criteria of project deliverability, value for money, and the government’s timetable to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry in the 2020s.
The projects are: The Captain Clean Energy Project led by Summit Power at Grangemouth, Scotland; A post-combustion capture project at Peterhead, Scotland, led by Shell and SSE; the Capture Power Ltd consortium’s White Rose CCS project in Yorkshire; and Teesside Low Carbon Project as candidates for EU and UK funding (see panel below for details).
The funding is to support the development of CCS technology, which could allow the safe removal and storage of carbon emissions from coal and gas plant.
The chosen projects are now being invited to take part in a period of intensive commercial negotiations with Government before decisions on which projects to support further are taken in the New Year.
“The projects we have chosen to take forward have all shown that they have the potential to kick-start the creation of a new CCS industry in the UK, but further discussions are needed to ensure we deliver value-for-money for taxpayers,” said Edward Davey, UK secretary of state for energy and climate change.
“Today’s announcement is an important step towards an exciting new industry, one that could help us reduce our carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs,” added Davey. “We have one of the best offers in the world and are a leading country in Europe.
“We will remain in close contact with the European Commission in the coming months as they take their decisions on which projects to support with European funding.”
Three of the UK’s shortlisted bids have also applied for European Commission (EC) funding from New Entrant Reserve (NER) allowances.
The UK government said it had written to the EC to inform them that it is willing to support these projects in the Commission’s competition – subject to them winning the UK competition. The EC is to make a final decision on whether to support a UK CCS project at the end of the year.
The four short listed bids, all full chain capture, transport and storage projects, are:
Captain Clean Energy Project: A proposal for a new 570MW, fully abated coal integrated gasification combined cycle (pre-combustion) project in Grangemouth, Scotland with storage in offshore depleted gas fields. Led by Summit Power, involving Petrofac (CO2 Deepstore), National Grid and Siemens.
Peterhead: A 340MW post-combustion capture retrofitted to part of an existing 1180MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at Peterhead, Scotland. Led by Shell and SSE.
Teesside Low Carbon Project: A pre-combustion coal gasification project (linked to c330MWe net power generating capacity fuelled by syngas with 90% of CO2 abated) on Teesside, North East England with storage in depleted oil field and saline aquifer. A consortium led by Progressive Energy and involving GDF SUEZ, Premier Oil, and BOC.
White Rose Project: An oxyfuel capture project at a proposed new 304MW fully abated supercritical coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire. Led by Alstom and involving Drax, BOC and National Grid.
