9 July 2007Terry Macalister
The government has been warned it needs to take a quick decision to spend almost £1bn to experiment with the potential benefits of carbon sequestration and capture to fight global warming.
Gordon Brown has spoken about Britain becoming a pioneer in this revolutionary sector and the energy white paper outlined the criteria by which companies would compete for part-funding for trials. However, oil and electricity providers are understood to have privately told ministers they will need more than £300m for each of the three expected experimental facilities, according to industry sources.
BP, one of the companies pushing to proceed with an experimental hydrogen plant using carbon capture in a North Sea oil field has abandoned its plans due to government delays. Other companies are now threatening to do the same unless ministers accept they must make a significant investment, said the source.
Eon, RWE and British Gas parent, Centrica, are among the companies that have put forward plans for coal-fired power stations that would remove and bury the CO2 offshore.
The power industry is arguing that Britain is facing a looming energy crunch in the run-up to 2015 after which there is a chance new nuclear stations could come on stream. Some experts are arguing Britain still needs 15 large non-nuclear plants and while there are many potential plans, less than a handful have got the definite go-ahead so far while others are dependent on a government decision on carbon capture.
Eon and RWE are proposing to build "supercritical" clean coal power stations with carbon capture while Centrica wants to construct an 800MW station at Teesside which would be the lowest emitting fossil fuel powered station in Britain.
