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The carbon capture and storage market could be worth £15 to £35 billion by 2030 and cut household electricity bills by £82 a year, according to an industry report published on Monday.
Including CCS in the armoury of low carbon technologies will cut wholesale electricity prices by 15 per cent compared to relying on nuclear and renewable generation, it claimed.
The research, jointly commissioned by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), found each CCS power plant would generate between 1,000 and 2,500 construction jobs and 200 to 300 operational jobs. By keeping down electricity prices, CCS could also help protect jobs in energy intensive industries that employ around 800,000 people, it argued.
Luke Warren, chief executive of the CCSA, said: “This report definitively shows that the successful deployment of CCS has wider benefits for the UK economy. Respected international and UK organisations agree that without CCS in the mix, costs of meeting climate change targets will rise significantly. We have gone further in this report to show that the cost savings from CCS have a real impact on the average UK household – increasing their disposable income and reducing the risk of fuel poverty.
“The UK is one of the best places in the world to develop CCS – we have abundant storage capacity in the North Sea, a world-class oil and gas industry with the right skills for CCS, and existing infrastructure that can be re-used. Now is the time for the UK to seize this opportunity, realise the significant benefits of CCS and become one of the global leaders in this vital technology.”
CCS developers have struggled to get going in recent years, as a collapse in the European carbon price has undermined the investment case.
The UK government has confirmed its support for a commercial scale CCS trial at Drax, in Yorkshire, as part of a £1 billion competition. Another project at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, is undergoing preparatory work and expected to get a slice of the funds.
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