Questions raised over ‘dash for gas’

Without the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a second 'dash for gas' is incompatible with the UK’s climate change targets, according to a report by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).

Researchers said gas could have “only a limited role as a bridging fuel to a low carbon future”. They said by 2050 overall gas consumption would need to fall to just 12 per cent of the 2010 level if Britain was to meet its legally binding target of reducing by carbon emissions to one fifth of the 1990 level.

The widespread displacement of coal during the UK’s first dash for gas in the 1990s means there can only be limited reductions to emissions from further substitution, the report said. 

Director of UKERC Professor Jim Watson added:  “Without CCS, there is little scope for gas use in power generation beyond 2030 and it will need to be steadily phased out over the next 35 years, and almost entirely removed by 2050.

“This represents a major challenge in relation to the decarbonisation of domestic heat, and undermines the economic logic of investing in new CCGT gas plants rather than low or zero-carbon generation in the first place.”

The report said gas-fired power stations built over the next decade and half would “need to operate on relatively low load factors”, a necessity that would make investors hesitant to plough money into CCGTs.

The government has been pushing to get CCGTs built via the capacity market, as it tries to phase out unabated coal-fired generation by 2025 and more intermittent renewables come online.

In November it made a last minute decision to cancel a £1 billion competition for the development CCS pilot projects. Earlier this week shadow energy minister Dr Alan Whitehead reiterated calls for the government to produce a national CCS strategy.