£2.5 million CCS funding signals development commitment 19 December 2014

Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage (SCCS) has welcomed yesterday's (18 December 2014) announcement that the UK government is making £2.5 million available for the further evaluation of CO2 storage sites beneath the North Sea.

DECC (The Department for Energy and Climate Change) is to provide the funding through its Innovation Fund.

Projects will focus on the next phase of storage sites suitable for long-term storage of CO2 captured at coal and gas power stations, as well as from heavy industry plants.

"The funding announcement is a positive indication that DECC is planning ahead for a second phase of CCS [Carbon Capture and Storage], following what we hope will be the realisation of the UK's first large-scale demonstration projects, Peterhead and White Rose," says SCCS director professor Stuart Haszeldine.

"It signals a strong commitment to seeing the development of CO2 storage sites in the UK move from theoretical to licensable," he adds.

Prof Haszeldine explains that SCCS has been heavily involved in identifying and characterising the UK's North Sea "storage assets", including work on the CO2MultiStore Joint Industry Project, and Progressing Scotland's CO2 storage opportunities analysis.

"We believe the UK is unique in Europe in being able to offer around 70 billion tonnes of CO2 storage," claims Prof Haszeldine.

"This will be of huge benefit to high-carbon economies sited around the North Sea, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and Belgium," he continues.

"Other European countries, such as Poland, will be able to connect to a North Sea CCS storage network, and we are working on progressing this opportunity through the EU's Projects of Common Interest."

Brian Tinham

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