UKERC response to the BERR consultation Towards Carbon Capture and Storage

Abstract:

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be a critical CO2 reduction technology for the UK. CCS is now commencing the early pre-commercial demonstration stages worldwide, with the objective of widespread commercial deployment by 2020 - 2025.
• It is very unlikely that a CCS plant will operate in the UK until additional costs are covered by appropriate financial support.
• Many estimates exist of the support needed to avoid losses on demonstration plant, typically stated to be a total of 70-100 per ton CO2. Several approaches are suggested here to regulate or incentivise CCS.
• At the nascent stage of CCS development and deployment, there is a role for Government to provide public education so as to enable citizens directly affected by CCS to understand and make decision about the technology.
• Lessons learned in UK and EU CCS demonstration projects should be shared globally.
• A wide and encompassing specification of capture ready is needed, to ensure feasible conversion to CCS, when it is required by regulation and/or economically justified.
• Capture ready design is a very important set of practical actions during the design and building of new power plant or other combustion plant, which can be utilised to ensure that CCS retrofit is possible and, hence, avoid locked-in high carbon emissions from fossil fuel use in future.
• BERR has already given Section 36 planning consent to Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power plants including a condition that they are capture ready, but without a clear definition of this condition.
• There is potential for strategic planning of the transport and storage system to provide significant benefits.

Publication Year:

2008

Publisher:

UKERC

DOI:

No DOI minted

Author(s):

Chalmers, H., Haszeldine, S., Gibbins, J. and Hardy, J.