Drax CCS secures Euro funding
9 Jul 2014
Drax’s White Rose Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) project has received €300 million in funding from the European Commission.
Located on land adjacent to the existing Drax power station in North Yorkshire, the 426MW White Rose CCS project will have the capacity to burn coal and potentially co-fire biomass.
Once built, the plant will capture around 90% of its carbon dioxide emissions and transport them via pipeline for permanent offshore storage under the North Sea.
The NER300 award represents another significant milestone for us in our development programme
Capture Power CEO Leigh Hackett
Project company Capture Power, a joint venture between Alstom, Drax and BOC, welcomed the Commission’s announcement to award the project €300 million (£238m) under its European NER300 programme.
NER300 is an EC programme that funds innovative renewable energy technology and CCS projects, and White Rose is the only CCS project in Europe so far to be allocated funds under the programme.
“The NER300 award represents another significant milestone for us in our development programme and an important potential source of funding for the project, as well as providing a strong signal for CCS in Europe,” said Capture Power chief executive officer Leigh Hackett.
White Rose is scheduled to form the anchor project for the development of National Grid’s Yorkshire and Humber CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, with the potential to enable CCS solutions for energy-intensive industries.
According to Capture Power, the transport infrastructure will have a capacity up to 17 million tonnes of CO2 per year through which White Rose will transport around 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
“We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix,” Hackett added.
Yesterday’s announcement follows news last December that White Rose CCS had secured Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
