Teesside Low Carbon Consortium welcomes UK CCS programme 04 April 2012

The launch of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Commercialisation programme by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) yesterday (3 April 2012) has been welcomed by a consortium aiming to build the first project on Teesside.

Teesside Low Carbon – comprising BOC, International Power, National Grid, Fairfield Energy, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy – is planning to bid for funding to develop a CCS project that would form the hub of a power and industrial CCS cluster in the North East of England.

Peter Whitton, Progressive Energy's managing director, explains that the project would be built on the Wilton site, and would provide sufficient low carbon electricity for over half a million households. It would, he says, also enable a carbon capture infrastructure for industrial emitters of CO2 in the region.

Most of the CO2 would be transported by pipeline to secure, long-term storage under the North Sea, for injection into a depleted oil field in the central North Sea. Some would also be injected and stored in a saline aquifer to provide substantial future storage capacity and diversity.

"We welcome the launch of the UK Government's CCS Commercialisation Programme and the opportunity it presents to help deliver this innovative clean energy project for Teesside," states Whitton.

"This Programme recognises the value CCS has to play in delivering a low carbon economy for the UK," he continues. "Teesside Low Carbon will safeguard and create jobs in the industrial heartland of the North East of England, driving investment and growth in the region and the UK as a whole.

Brian Tinham

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