Carbon News

Tuesday 01 July 2008

E.ON is proposing to use "supercritical" technology in its proposed units 5 and 6 for the Kingsnorth site, to capture carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal

The proposed Kingsnorth coal power station has been named among a shortlist of four projects bidding to become the UK's demonstration project for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

The government said yesterday that E.ON's proposal would go forward with proposals from BP Alternative Energy International Limited, Peel Power Limited and Scottish Power Generation Limited to the next stage of consideration under the government's CCS demonstration competition.

The four projects were selected from nine contenders who applied to run CCS demonstration projects in March this year.

The announcement of the four pre-qualifiers for the demonstration programmes came yesterday as energy secretary John Hutton announced a consultation on new CCS rules under the forthcoming European CCS Directive.

Carbon capture and storage can cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels by up to 90%, the government claimed.

The demonstration project will look at the full chain of CCS technologies - capture, transport and storage - on a coal-power plant capable of 300-400MW generating capacity. It is expected to be operational by 2014.

Mr Hutton said: "The progress we are making with the CCS demonstration competition and on developing a sound legislative and regulatory framework will help to deliver our ambition to see CCS ready for commercial deployment by 2020. We have received an excellent response from industry to this competition - indicating their commitment to the clean energy agenda."

Kingsnorth

The £1 billion Kingsnorth project would be the first coal power station built in the UK for 20 years if it goes ahead. E.ON wants to build two new 800MW units alongside its existing coal and oil power station at the site on the Medway Estuary in Kent.

It  involves a consortium of partners to provide CCS systems. This includes project managers Arup, technology consultants EPRI, carbon capture technology suppliers Fluor and MHI, pipeline transportation firm Penspen and carbon dioxide storage partner Tullow Oil.

Bob Taylor, Managing Director of Generation at E.ON UK, said: "We firmly believe that our Kingsnorth project - which is the only modern, highly efficient coal-fired power station currently in planning - is a strong candidate for this competition. We look forward to supplying the Government with more detail about our plans and hopefully to making Kingsnorth into the world's first large-scale CCS demonstration plant."

Consultation

The 12-week consultation issued yesterday, entitled "Towards Carbon Capture and Storage", considers requirements for new power plants to be "carbon capture ready".

It also asks for views on how the government should regulate the storage of captured carbon from fossil fuels, which can be pumped underground. The government is seeking views to help inform its negotiation of the upcoming European CCS Directive, part of the EU's new Climate Action and Energy Package of measures to cut climate change emissions from the energy sector.

The UK is to host a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum Ministerial Conference in 2009.

Mr Hutton said: "We cannot deliver wide-scale deployment of CCS, nor tackle global climate change, alone. We need greater international collaboration and will continue to urge other countries to demonstrate a similar level of commitment to demonstrating CCS as the UK. We must ensure CCS is recognised in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism, and have been pushing hard for it to be high on the agenda at the forthcoming G8 Leaders meeting."

The consultation on CCS closes on September 22.