EU backs UK's first CCS plant in Hatfield

The 900 megawatt (MW) CCS demonstration site, adjacent to the working Hatfield Colliery at Stainforth in South Yorkshire, has beaten off rival schemes from E ON at Kingsnorth, RWE at Tilbury and Scottish Power at Longannet.

The Hatfield site, which should generate enough energy for a million homes, was a favourite to win the bid because of its proximity to a large number of other power stations that are close to the depleted gas fields in the North Sea where carbon can be safely stored.

CCS — also known as CO2 sequestration — is a process whereby CO2 is captured from gases produced by fossil fuel, compressed and then transported and injected into deep geologic formations for permanent storage – in this case, depleted gas fields.

It is thought use of the technology could cut CO2 emissions by up to 60 million tonnes in the region within 15 years.

Powerfuel Power Limited, part of the Powerfuel plc group of companies, is behind the development and its chief executive, welcomed the news today. “We are delighted that our application for the European Economic Recovery Package funding has been successful and would like to express our gratitude to all those who have supported our project since 2002," he said.

Tom Riordan, chief executive at regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward, which helped with the bid, said winning it was the first step in developing a region wide CCS cluster. "This decision catapults our region on to the global stage as a leader in demonstrating commercial scale CCS. Nowhere in Europe has such a large number of power stations so close to safe carbon storage in depleted gas fields in the North Sea, and the region has access to proven technology and engineering skills.

"We have the potential of storing up to 10 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions, creating thousands of jobs and creating an infrastructure that could attract energy intensive industries that want a solution for their carbon emissions.”

Five other European sites have been selected for CCS funding in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Italy. The funding will come from the European Commission’s energy programme recovery fund.