UK Government invests in ‘world’s first’ gas-fired CCS facility

As part of a £100m investment in the new technology, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey said the CCS plant will help ensure “a cleaner, greener future for the North Sea”.

Signing the deal, Davey was joined by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who visited Peterhead today to set out plans for the future of North Sea oil and gas.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: “The innovation of the UK’s energy industry is something we should be really proud of and the fact that we are a world leader in carbon capture and storage is a great example of our country’s ingenuity”.

Clegg said that the multi-million pound deal with Shell, who will be developing the project, will help to “safeguard thousands of jobs and power half a million homes with clean electricity”.

“It shows we can build a stronger economy and do it fairly by protecting our environment for future generations,” he added.

The Peterhead project will join the White Rose CCS project, a ‘state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant’ that is equipped with full CCS technology located at the existing Drax Power Station site near Selby, North Yorkshire.

Both projects are the EU’s largest commercially sized projects with this phase supported by the £100m from the UK Government.

Energy Technologies Institute CEO David Clarke said: “Our research has found that without CCS, the cost of reaching UK Climate Change targets will double from a minimum of around £30bn per year in 2050. That shows the potential economic importance of the technology as part of the UK’s energy mix.

“Today’s announcement, building on the White Rose announcement late last year is another boost to CCS as an industry in the UK,” he added.

Last week, the Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum (APGTF) launched a new technology strategy aimed at turning CCS into a mainstream carbon abatement technology.

Leigh Stringer