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The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has made £2.5 million available to encourage the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in the North Sea.
The money will help companies identify the next phase of sites under the North Sea to store CO2 from coal and gas power stations, as well as heavy industries such as steel factories, to be utilised as part of Carbon capture and Storage (CCS) projects.
The money has come from Decc’s Innovation Fund and will be delivered by the Energy Technology Institute (ETI).
The ETI has issued a call for proposals, with a deadline of 5 February 2015, with a view to awarding the contracts and work beginning by spring 2015.
The government hopes this funding will “catalyse further funding from other partners and industry” to start the development of CO2 storage sites, which can take up to nine years to establish.
The ETI’s programme manager for CCS Andrew Green said: “The work this project will deliver will build knowledge and with that confidence in sites based in the UK waters to provide an economic case for their further development and use it as a basis for the further expansion of CCS in the UK.”
The Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) chief executive Luke Warren added: “The announcement is positive news and a much needed signal from Government that it recognises the importance of ensuring that the UK has the necessary storage infrastructure to support the next phase of CCS projects that will follow on from the two competition projects.
“Supporting a steady roll-out of projects will enable CCS to become cost-competitive with other low-carbon technologies in the 2020s.”
National Grid Carbon has also awarded a contract for the front end engineering design for the wells required for the White Rose CCS project.
The contract, with Applied Drilling technology International (ADTI) is for the design of a shallow water well envelope and special features to make the wells suitable for CO2 storage.
National Grid Carbon’s project director Calum Hughes: “This latest contract now means all the main engineering and design work t is underway and on schedule.”
National Grid Carbon is working with Capture Power Limited, a consortium of Alstom, Drax and BOC on the White Rose CCS, which was awarded a share of a £1 billion commercialisation fund from the government, alongside the Peterhead CCS project.
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