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U.K. Goal Is Four Carbon Capture Plants by 2020, Minister Says
2010-10-19 17:51:18.155 GMT
By Sally Bakewell
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. could host four
demonstration carbon capture and storage technology projects by
2020, U.K. Energy Minister Charles Hendry said.
Testifying to a panel of lawmakers, Hendry set out the
government's goals for the technology, which captures emitted
carbon dioxide before storing it underground.
"We think we could get to four plants by 2020 -- that's
the ambition -- and seeing further rolling out of that later,"
Hendry told the Energy and Climate Change Committee today in
London.
The comments, on the eve of a Treasury decision on funding
for the next five years, is the clearest indication yet that the
Conservative-led government will maintain its support for the
four carbon capture plants proposed by the Labour administration
before it left office in May.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's statement
tomorrow will include details about how the government will fund
four CCS demonstration projects. Earlier today, the Guardian
reported that the government would cut funding for the
technology by 50 percent to 1 billion pounds ($1.57 billion).
"We've lobbied the chancellor on the need to retain all
four projects," Matthew Farrow, head of energy, transport and
planning at the Confederation of British Industry, a business
lobby group, said at the committee meeting. "We feel it will be
a big mistake to scale them back."
Time and Energy
Timing posed a challenge, and investment in gas-fired
plants would be necessary to ensure security of energy supply,
Hendry said. New nuclear power will not be online before 2017,
and carbon capture not to scale before the end of the decade.
"There is a natural limit to the speed at which this
technology can be physically constructed, tested and
developed," he said.
When pressed whether the policy would encourage a "dash
for gas" generation plants if the government does not invest
now in demonstration carbon capture technology, Hendry said it
was bringing forward all four projects. The government also
consulted with industry keen on investing in carbon capture to
gauge how to "phrase the next competition," Hendry said.
Labour devised a CCS levy to fund the four projects. This
would collect a charge from electricity suppliers to be
disbursed in support of the demonstration carbon capture
projects.
For Related News and Information:
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
New Energy Finance top stories: TNEF <GO>
Most-read CCS news: MNI CARBCAPT <GO>
--Editors: Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Sally Bakewell in London at +44-20-3216-4332 or
Sbakewell1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
