CCS competition sparks two entries on day one

Two consortia have announced plans to enter the government's competition for £1 billion in funding to commercialise a project.

The announcements – just hours after the Department for Energy and Climate Change formally launched the competition – came from Teeside Low Carbon and Capture Power.

Teesside Low Carbon – a consortium formed of BOC, International Power, National Grid, Fairfield Energy, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy – said it planned a CCS project “which would form the anchor for the development of a power and industrial CCS cluster in Teesside and the wider North East of England”.

The project would be built on the Wilton site, an industrial complex in Teesside, and it would generate electricity for over half a million households as well as providing carbon capture infrastructure for industrial emitters in the region. The majority of the CO2 emitted by the plant would be transported by pipeline to storage under the North Sea.

Capture Power is a consortium formed by Alstom, Drax and BOC and it aims to develop a CCS project on the Drax site.

The consortium has named the project the ‘White Rose CCS Project‘ after the county symbol of Yorkshire.

The group said that the project would help drive the formation of a CCS cluster, and help develop so-called Oxyfuel technology.

Capture Power said the Humber region “offers huge potential to link together carbon-intensive industrial and power plants via a shared pipeline infrastructure, to be provided by National Grid, out into the North Sea.

The company said it would also work with 2Co Energy, the developer of the Don Valley CCS project near Doncaster, and National Grid to promote a joint vision for a CCS cluster via National Grid’s “Humber Gateway”.