Wednesday 19 October 2011

Government cancels Longannet CCS project

The Government's stuttering carbon capture and storage programme took a nosedive today as Energy Secretary Chris Huhne announced that DECC would no longer proceed with the Longannet project in Scotland. DECC says that the £1 billion purse for CCS research will still be available for other projects.

The Government has said the decision, which may dent the UK's low carbon ambition, had to be realistic to ensure taxpayer's money is invested properly. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said: ‪"Despite everyone working extremely hard, we've not been able to reach a satisfactory deal for a project at Longannet at this time, so we've taken the decision to pursue alternative projects."

The CCS consortium comprising of ScottishPower, National Grid and Shell remain confident the work done at Longannet will be put to good use.

Speaking on behalf of the consortium, ScottishPower's Generation Director, Hugh Finlay said: "As a result of the study we now understand how the CCS process works from power station to storage site. This gives us great insight into the physical infrastructure that we need to support it, the regulatory framework it fits within and the organisational model of a CCS business. All of this information will be made available through DECC's Knowledge Transfer programme and will be of enormous benefit to other CCS developers and stakeholders".