Chief insists CCS won't rest on future of Corus
THE company leading Teesside’s bid to build a £1.5bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project has insisted the scheme’s future did not rest on the survival of Corus’ slab steel plant at Redcar.
If successful, the project would put the region in the vanguard of development of CCS technology and go a long way to establishing the North-east as a beacon green economy, holding out the promise of thousands of new jobs.
Corus’ Teesside Cast Products plant, which is the area’s biggest single emitter of , had been closely linked to development of the Eston Grange Power Project by Progressive Energy. However managing director Peter Whitton said the scheme, which has gone forward to compete with four other UK sites for vital Government and EU cash, was not dependent on Corus being involved.
Conversely, if Corus survived its current troubles, it would become the only steelworks in Europe with a CCS facility on its doorstep.
“Given that the steelworks is a large carbon emitter, that’s a big plus because in time it would have to pay for the right to emit that carbon,” he said.
“A carbon disposal network does away with that expenditure.
“If Corus stays, the presence of the project should help to underpin the long-term future of the steelworks.”
The technology relies on massive underground pipelines to transport harmful from a number of large emitters to natural aquifers for storage beneath the North Sea.
The project would create 1,500 construction and 150 permanent jobs.
The scheme’s proximity to several companies of similar scale to Corus had been cited as one of the scheme’s biggest selling points.
Corus emitted 36.2 million tonnes of in 2007-2008, although the company was aiming to reduce emissions by 20% based on 1990 levels by 2020.
That was before the downturn which saw it threatened with closure when the consortium that had underwritten its order book for ten years walked out halfway through the deal.
The main component of Eston Grange project is a 800MW coal-fired power station, planned for the same South Tees site as the underground pipeline.
The project came a step closer to being realised in April when it was named as one of the Government’s preferred CCS projects to receive funding.
The plant could be operational by 2015.
British gas owner Centrica had a 50% stake in the £1.5bn project, but the energy giant sold its equity back to Progressive Energy to concentrate on nuclear and offshore wind projects last month. Progressive Energy bosses are in talks to secure an alternative investor.
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