Monday 3 April 2017

‘Delaying CCS could cost UK £2bn a year’

Delaying carbon capture and storage (CCS) implementation could cost the UK up to £2 billion a year.

That's according to the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which says achieving the country's 2050 emissions targets without deploying CCS is very likely to result in soaring costs.

The organisation says the value of CCS comes from its potential for use in multiple operations.

It can be used to generate power, capture industrial emissions, gasify various feedstocks and deliver 'negative emissions' when used in combination with bioenergy.

The ETI believes there is significant storage capacity off the UK coast with no technical barriers to its use - it says no more than six shoreline hubs and 20 offshore stores are needed to deploy CCS effectively.

It suggests the industry now needs to concentrate on commercialisation and the delivery of a small number of large plants, rather than focusing too heavily on further innovation and research.

Andrew Green, the ETI’s CCS Programme Manager said: "CCS is critical to decarbonising the UK power, heat and transport sectors, through providing reliable, low carbon electricity generation and the cost effective production of hydrogen.

"Although critics have claimed it is expensive our analysis has shown that the costs and risks to the UK’s decarbonisation pathway could actually be reduced by bringing forward, rather than delaying, the deployment of CCS."

The UK Government’s second bid to support carbon capture and storage (CCS) has fallen through.

A large scale carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) facility has just entered construction in China.