Power Engineering - Renewables and CCS top the UK government's climate change agenda

20 November 2007 - Among the measures set out by Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, in a major speech on climate change yesterday were an undertaking for a major expansion in renewable energies and the launch of its well publicized competition to build one of the world's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants.

Tidal lagoons and barrages below 1 GW capacity will receive extra support through the Renewables Obligation, potentially benefiting projects such as the proposed Rhyl, Swansea Bay project. This follows a previous announcement by John Hutton on a feasibility study into the possibility of generating tidal energy from the River Severn. A Severn barrage with a potential 8.6 GW capacity could generate 5 per cent of the UK's electricity

The launch of the government's carbon capture and storage competition. This follows a previous announcement by John Hutton, Business and Enterprise Secretary, that the project should demonstrate post-combustion CCS on a coal-fired power station, with carbon dioxide stored offshore.
Post-combustion technology can be retro-fitted to the vast proportion of existing and planned coal-fired power stations globally and it complements the developments in Norway and the United States of alternative CCS technologies.

The government will announce a decision on future nuclear power in the Uk in early 2008.

Brown's speech took place on the same day that the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance (CEMEP) published its report, commissioned by the UK government, setting out the steps needed to unlock the business opportunities that exist in tackling climate change.

Hutton said: "The direct link between tackling climate change and long-term wealth creation is now beyond doubt. The business opportunities, once fully unlocked, will be vast."

"Pioneering low carbon technologies, including renewables, CCS and, subject to our decision, new nuclear, will help secure diverse future energy supplies while tackling climate change. In a global market the UK's expertise in developing these technologies will also open up business worth billions."

"With China alone building an average of two coal fired power stations every week, the development in the UK of technology to capture and safely store up to 90 per cent of CO2 emissions is critically important. The launch of the competition today puts the UK on track to build within seven years one of the world's first commercial-scale CCS projects on a coal fired power station."

He added that the CEMEP recommendations would be central in helping the government give business the long term certainty they need to invest in the development of cost-effective solutions to environmental problems.

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