£1bn ‘clean power’ scheme put in doubt
PLANS to build a pioneering “clean” coal power station in the North-East creating more than 1,100 jobs, hang in the balance today.
The methods used in the proposed £1bn development planned for Teesside, which would put the area at the forefront of the green energy market, were previously supported by the Government.
But a change in Government policy revealed on Tuesday means backers of the ground-breaking project may now think twice.
In 2005, energy supplier Centrica, which runs British Gas, earmarked two potential sites on the south side of the Tees. It confirmed it was “very committed” to the project and was planning to go in 85%-15% with energy specialists, Progressive Energy.
The plant would use greener “pre-combustion” technology which cuts down harmful emissions by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the fuel gas stream of a power station before fuel is burned. The gases would be pumped deep under ground to fill huge caverns created by the removal of oil and gas.
The Government previously supported the method, but Chancellor, Alistair Darling has now backed a programme of “post-combustion” power stations, which remove CO2 from the exhaust of a power station. This can then be sent via a pipeline offshore for enhanced oil recovery and storage underground.
John Hutton, the Government’s business and enterprise secretary, said research suggests post-combustion capture is “the most relevant technology” - and will be better for the industry’s future development.
“It has the potential to remove and safely store up to 90% of damaging CO2 emissions,” he said.
The Government is due to formally launch a competition to build the UK’s first carbon capture and storage site, in November.
A spokesman for Centrica told the Gazette the Government’s decision places a question mark on the economics of the Teesside project.
“However, we need to assess the details further,” he said. “I think we’ll certainly be making our concerns known to the Government quite strongly.
“There’s no real incentive for the dirtier big generators to switch to more effective plants.”
Renew Tees Valley, a firm set up to promote renewable energy on Teesside, says pre-combustion capture is the most efficient and cost effective method.
Peter Ellis from the company said: “The main advantage of pre-combustion capture is the volume of gas being treated is much less and the plant associated is very much smaller than post combustion capture. Advantages of post-combustion capture is the possibility of “retro-fitting” such a plant to existing power stations. The flaw in this argument is however that the power station has to be efficient enough to provide the energy to run the CO2 extraction plant and still provide useful quantities of electricity to the grid.
“Most of the world’s fleet of power stations is relatively old and not efficient enough to justify the fitting of post-combustion capture plant.
“I hope that this move by the Government does not disadvantage the Tees Valley project, but along with other leading industry players we are looking to see how we can influence the Government’s view before the competition details are finally launched in November.”
