‘Capture readiness’ – lock-in problems for CCS governance

The term ‘capture ready’ has been used by the UK Government when granting licences for power plants. However, the term has not as yet been given an agreed definition. This paper draws on literature on lock-in of large socio-technical systems and on regulation of technology undergoing development. Further, the paper compares some of the versions of the capture readiness concept proposed to date. It also explores capture readiness beyond the minimum requirement of space on the site for capture operations, including integration of capture and power plant, downstream operations, overall system integration and regulation of future retrofitting.