UK CCS plants race for EU funds
A proposal to build a new combined power and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant in Yorkshire is the top contender for EU funding earmarked to support the deployment of CCS
The Don Valley Power Project, which would be built on the site of the Hatfield Colliery, heads the shortlist of CCS projects in the running for a share of €1.5 billion of support under the European Investment Bank’s New Entrant Reserve scheme (NER300).
Funded through the sale of allowances for the EU emissions trading scheme, the NER300 will provide up to €337 million for individual CCS and renewable energy demonstration projects across the bloc.
The bank aims to support the three CCS projects and up to 16 renewable technology schemes. ScottishPower’s Sound of Islay tidal project is the top ranking renewable energy project from the UK, in a shortlist that also includes bioenergy projects in Sweden and a German wind farm.
Half of the eight CCS projects shortlisted are from the UK, and an application from Shell and SSE for their joint project to retrofit CCS on a gas power station in Peterhead, Scotland was placed on the reserve list.
The project, which remains in the running for funding under the government’s rebooted £1 billion CCS competition, subsequently became the first in the UK to be awarded a licence to permanently store CO2 underground.
Under an agreement with the Crown Estate, the firms will now be able to store CO2 produced by the SSE power station in Shell’s depleted Goldeneye gas field, located 65 miles off the Scottish coast.