Four bidders have been shortlisted for the next phase of the UK's £1bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition. The four were selected from eight bids received after an evaluation process that considered project deliverability, value for money and the Government's timetable to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry in the 2020s.
The four short listed bids – all full-chain capture, transport and storage projects – are:
• Captain Clean Energy Project, a proposal for a 570MW project in Grangemouth, Scotland, with storage in offshore depleted gas fields. It is led by Summit Power, involving Petrofac (CO2 Deepstore), National Grid and Siemens.
• Peterhead, a 340MW post-combustion capture retrofitted to part of an existing 1,180MW power station at Peterhead, Scotland. It is led by Shell and SSE.
• Teesside Low Carbon Project, a pre-combustion coal gasification project on Teesside, with storage in depleted oil field and saline aquifer. It is a consortium led by Progressive Energy and involving GDF SUEZ, Premier Oil, and BOC.
• White Rose Project, an oxyfuel capture project at a proposed new 304MW coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire. It is led by Alstom and involves Drax, BOC and National Grid.
The successful projects are now being invited to take part in a period of intensive commercial negotiations with Government before decisions on which projects to support further are taken in the New Year.
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Edward Davey said: "We have received some quality bids from industry who have really risen to the challenge set by the competition. The projects we have chosen to take forward have all shown that they have the potential to kick-start the creation of a new CCS industry in the UK, but further discussions are needed to ensure we deliver value-for-money for taxpayers.
"Today's announcement is an important step towards an exciting new industry, one that could help us reduce our carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs.
Three of the UK's short listed bids also applied for European Commission funding from New Entrant Reserve (NER) allowances.
The Government has written to the Commission to inform them that it is willing to support those projects in the Commission's competition, subject to their ultimate success in the UK competition. The Commission will make a final decision on whether to support a UK CCS project at the end of the year.
Ed Davey continued: “We have one of the best offers in the world and are a leading country in Europe. We will remain in close contact with the European Commission in the coming months as they take their decisions on which projects to support with European funding.”
Photograph of Drax courtesy of Paul Glazzard