Osborne’s CCS pet projects named

Two successful bidders for the Government's £1bn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) commercialisation programme competition have been announced today.


The Chancellor George Osborne announced in yesterday’s budget that it would take on two major carbon capture and storage projects and today they were confirmed as the Peterhead Project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and the White Rose Project in Yorkshire, England.

DECC claims that if developed at scale, CCS technology could allow the safe removal and storage of harmful carbon emissions from coal and gas fired power stations and heavy industry, helping the UK to meet its climate change targets.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Edward Davey said: “Today’s announcement moves us a significant step closer to a Carbon Capture and Storage industry – an industry which will help reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs.

“These two are major infrastructure projects potentially worth several billion pounds and could support thousands of construction jobs over the next few years.”

The Peterhead project involves capturing around 90% of the carbon dioxide from part of the existing gas fired power station at Peterhead before transporting it and storing it in a depleted gas field beneath the North Sea.

The White Rose project will also capture 90% of the carbon dioxide from a new super-efficient coal-fired power station at the Drax site in North Yorkshire, before transporting and storing it in a saline aquifer beneath the southern North Sea.

The two preferred bidders were selected following a period of intensive commercial negotiations with four projects shortlisted from an original eight in October last year.

Conor McGlone

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