News

Monday 29 June 2009

CCS technology could potentially reduce the emissions from coal fired power stations by 90%

An Energy Bill was today (June 29 2009) proposed for the forthcoming session of Parliament as part of the government's plans to "lead the world in breakthrough clean coal technology".

Core to the aims of the Bill is a proposal to allow the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to introduce a financial mechanism to fund up to four commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plants.   And, a statement from DECC said that the first of these could be feeding cleaner energy into the grid by the middle of the next decade.

Announcement of the Bill follows the publication on June 17 2009  of the  consultation document ‘A framework for the development of clean coal' which sets out how the government proposes to tackle the need to curb emissions of carbon from future coal fired power stations "with the need to maintain a secure diverse energy mix".

Financial support

The consultation document also contained proposals for the detailed design of the financial support mechanism that will be introduced through the Energy Bill.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "We're moving fast on CCS.  It's a critical technology in the fight against climate change and I want the UK to lead the world with it.  This Bill is about providing the finance needed for the construction of commercial-scale demonstration plants. 

"Through CCS we can develop a new high tech industrial sector, we can maintain a diverse energy mix and, once deployed around the world, make a major contribution to the fight against climate change."

The proposed Energy Bill was announced today in a policy package ‘Building Britain's Future', published by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The package outlines the government's priorities and its draft legislative programme which is now open for consultation before being finalised in the Queen's Speech in the autumn.

Explaining the issues at stake in terms over tackling coal Mr Milband said: "Coal is the most carbon intensive of fossil fuels and plays a vital role in providing the UK with reliable electricity supplies. Climate change is an increasingly urgent challenge and the UK Climate Change Act 2008 includes a legally binding target to reduce the UK‟s greenhouse gas emissions to at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

CCS has the potential to capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted from large combustion power stations and has the potential to contribute to carbon dioxide abatement globally.

"However, CCS has not yet been fully demonstrated at commercial scale on a power station making it an expensive process at its current stage of development.

Market failure

The rationale for government intervention is the existence of a market failure related to technological innovation. In the absence of government support for CCS technologies, the private benefit to investors is lower than the social benefits. There are also associated risks for first movers as it is an unproven technology. Reliance on market forces alone will result in underinvestment in CCS research and development from a social point of view."

And, the explanation of what the intended effects of the proposals are, Mr Miliband emphasised that by supporting CCS this will bring forward CCS as an "operational and economically viable technology earlier than the market would otherwise," and to "bring forward in time the carbon dioxide abatement potential of this technology and to establish CCS globally as a proven low carbon technology."