CCS Projects in the UK Going Forward

The UK is Well-positioned to Lead in Carbon Capture and Storage

The UK has more secure storage capacity for carbon dioxide in the rocks deep under the North Sea than the rest of the EU put together. 

This is a very valuable asset in a carbon-constrained world, which today’s UK carbon capture and storage commercialisation competition announcement by UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will start to capitalise on. 

Industry can now begin to develop the first generation of new fossil power plants that will capture their emissions, together with the pipelines and deep injection wells to return the carbon underground.

The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre, supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, is also working to build on this initiative, by developing new methods to reduce future costs and by training the next generation of engineers and scientists.  As well as the main projects, linked research facilities will give unrivalled opportunities to test new technologies in realistic environments.

Professor Jon Gibbins, UKCCSRC Director, says, “With projects to seed carbon-free industry clusters across the UK, new electricity market mechanisms to support CCS and a strong R&D base, the UK is now leading the world in showing how to break the link between fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions to atmosphere.”