Drax, the operator of Britain's biggest power station, has secured up to €300m (£238m) of European Union funding to build a power plant whose carbon dioxide emissions will be trapped and buried deep beneath the North Sea.
The new plant will be built on land next to Drax's existing power station near Selby in Yorkshire. It will burn enough coal for 630,000 homes and 90% of its CO2 will be transported by pipeline for permanent storage under the North Sea.
The project, called White Rose, is a joint venture between Drax, Alstom and BOC and is the first large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the EU.
White Rose will capture and bury the plant's CO2 with transport and storage provided by National Grid. Leigh Hackett, chief executive of Capture Power, which runs White Rose, said: "The NER300 award represents another significant milestone for us in our development programme and an important potential source of funding for the project, as well as providing a strong signal for CCS in Europe.
"We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix. CCS is an important technology providing clean, reliable and cost competitive electricity with the potential to contribute greatly to the decarbonisation of global power markets."
Parliament's energy and climate change committee called in May for the UK's first CCS plants to be fast-tracked because they were vital to limit climate change. The MPs criticised the government's conduct of its £1bn competition for the first plants.
White Rose applied for funding from the European NER300 programme a year ago. NER300 is a fund set up by the European Commission to encourage low-carbon energy projects. The award to White Rose is one of 19 to projects across the EU totalling €1bn.
They are designed to encourage private investment in green energy programmes. Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action, said: "With these first-of-a-kind projects, we will help protect the climate and make Europe less energy dependent. The €1bn we are awarding today will leverage some additional €900m of private investment."
theguardian.com
The new plant will be built on land next to Drax's existing power station near Selby in Yorkshire. It will burn enough coal for 630,000 homes and 90% of its CO2 will be transported by pipeline for permanent storage under the North Sea.
The project, called White Rose, is a joint venture between Drax, Alstom and BOC and is the first large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the EU.
White Rose will capture and bury the plant's CO2 with transport and storage provided by National Grid. Leigh Hackett, chief executive of Capture Power, which runs White Rose, said: "The NER300 award represents another significant milestone for us in our development programme and an important potential source of funding for the project, as well as providing a strong signal for CCS in Europe.
"We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix. CCS is an important technology providing clean, reliable and cost competitive electricity with the potential to contribute greatly to the decarbonisation of global power markets."
Parliament's energy and climate change committee called in May for the UK's first CCS plants to be fast-tracked because they were vital to limit climate change. The MPs criticised the government's conduct of its £1bn competition for the first plants.
White Rose applied for funding from the European NER300 programme a year ago. NER300 is a fund set up by the European Commission to encourage low-carbon energy projects. The award to White Rose is one of 19 to projects across the EU totalling €1bn.
They are designed to encourage private investment in green energy programmes. Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action, said: "With these first-of-a-kind projects, we will help protect the climate and make Europe less energy dependent. The €1bn we are awarding today will leverage some additional €900m of private investment."
theguardian.com
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