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E.ON Evaluates Netherlands Plant for CO2 Capture Aid Contest
2010-11-15 17:39:55.328 GMT
By Sally Bakewell
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- E.ON AG will decide whether to
submit its Maasvlakte carbon capture and storage project in
Rotterdam for a European Union contest aimed at providing about
4.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion) of funding for the technology.
"We have started to evaluate the requirements set out in
the call for proposals and will decide the next steps based on
this evaluation," Sebastian Heindrichs, a spokesman for the
world's biggest utility by sales, said in an e-mail.
E.ON is working with Electrabel Nederland NV, a unit of GDF
Suez SA, to fit the technology that traps CO2 emissions for
underground storage at the Maasvlakte coal power station. The
plant is the power company's only "viable option" for the
first round of the contest because its other CCS project at
Kingsnorth in the U.K. won't be ready in time, Heindrichs said.
Dusseldorf-based E.ON said it will decide "in time"
whether to enter Maasvlakte for the EU funds, to be raised from
the sale of 300 million allowances to emit carbon dioxide under
Europe's cap-and-trade program. Companies have three months to
submit bids after the EU opened the contest on Nov. 9.
Based on a projected 2012 carbon price, the funds available
from the so-called New Entrants Reserve program could be about
4.7 billion euros, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance
data. "The NER 300 call requires very strict timelines,"
Heindrichs said.
Funds will aid up to eight demonstration carbon capture
projects and 34 renewable-energy technologies. E.ON will also
consider applying for the latter, Heindrichs said.
E.ON withdrew its Kingsnorth plant in Kent from a separate
U.K. government CCS competition last month due to a "mismatch
in timing," he said. Economic conditions weren't right to
progress on the project, the company said at the time. Instead,
E.ON planned to focus on Maasvlakte, the company said then.
For Related News and Information:
Renewable energy top stories: GREEN <GO>
Most-read carbon capture news: MNI CARBCAPT <GO>
--Editors: Randall Hackley, Alex Devine
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
