Funding for Grangemouth CCS

Located close to Ineos’ petrochemical complex, the proposed CCS plant would be a 570MW coal-gasification facility fitted with CCS technology to cut emissions by 90%.

Today the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it would give £1.7 million and the Scottish Government £2.5 million towards feasibility studies for the scheme.

During the past 10 years we have seen many projects fall away because of perceived government disinterest

SCCS director Stuart Haszeldine

Know as the Caledonia Clean Energy Project, it is being developed by US company Summit Power Group, the project would capture 90% of its CO₂ emissions and transport them for geological sequestration in the North Sea.

It is only the third major CCS project to receive government backing in the UK, the other projects in development being the 426MW White Rose facility at Drax in North Yorkshire, and Shell and Scottish and Southern Energy’s (SSE) Peterhead CCS in Aberdeenshire.

“This is a really important step forward by UK and Scottish governments to support development of innovative low-carbon projects at very large scale,” said Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS) director Stuart Haszeldine.

“During the past 10 years we have seen many projects fall away because of perceived government disinterest. This type of support is essential if the UK is to encourage a series of low-carbon power projects, to follow on from Peterhead in Scotland, and from White Rose in Yorkshire.”

Seattle-based Summit Power Group is already building a CCS project in Texas: the 400MW Texas Clean Energy Project will export 90% of its CO2 emissions to be used in enhanced oil recovery in the West Texas Permian Basin and is due to begin commercial operation in 2018.