Carbon capture and storage roadmap launched

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) yesterday launched a vision for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), in a drive to promote and develop the technology. As part of this, the DECC also published the CCS Roadmap, whereby the steps towards a world leading CCS industry are laid out with a target date of the 2020’s.

These steps include a Commercialisation Programme to decrease costs by ‘supporting practical experience in the design, construction and operation of commercial scale CCS’. This will involve £1 billion capital funding.

£125 million will be invested in research and development, with £13 million of that going towards a new CCS Research Centre. There will be electricity market reforms to increase investment in commercial scale CCS and a commitment to work with industry to develop skills, storage and the supply chain. There will also be a focus on international engagement, learning from other projects around the world, while sharing knowledge gained in the UK programme.

The UK government says that this is, “a clear illustration of the Government's global leadership on CCS and firm commitment to working with industry to enable cost competitive CCS in the 2020s”. It is perhaps a slightly different approach than to that seen for the solar industry, which has been staunchly opposed to the government’s subsidy cuts.

Edward Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, is extremely keen on the prospects for the industry, “The potential rewards from CCS are immense: a technology that can de-carbonise coal and gas-fired power stations and large industrial emitters, allowing them to play a crucial part in the UK’s low carbon future.

The CCS industry is currently in its infancy, not just in the UK, but around the world. As such, there is plenty of opportunity, and some would say uncertainty, over its future. Many oppose CCS; some on the grounds of reliability and others from idealism. Reliability wise, some feel there are not enough guarantees that sequestered carbon would not be rereleased into the atmosphere in future, while others site the cost of the changeover.

The most vociferous opposition however, comes from those that feel CCS is not moving away from the problem; it is not solving the problem they say, merely ‘applying a band-aid’. It will not reduce the exploitation of coal, oil and gas reserves, which could come to a head in the near future, as demand soars and reserves are used up.

Yet it offers a medium term solution which could reduce emissions very quickly and relatively cheaply, compared to transforming the UK energy mix. It remains to be seen whether the CCS market will become a thriving industry, or whether it will have little effect on UK emissions.