€300m boost for Yorkshire carbon capture power plant
YORKSHIRE power station operator Drax has won €300m (£238m) of European Union funding to build a power plant for a major carbon storage project.
The carbon dioxide emissions from the plant, which will be built on land next to Drax’s existing power station near Selby, will be trapped and buried in the North Sea.
The plant will burn coal with the potential to co-fire sustainable biomass and meet the equivalent power needs of over 630,000 homes, with 90% of its CO2 being captured and transported by pipeline for permanent off-shore storage deep beneath the North Sea.
Capture Power is a joint venture set up by Alstom, Drax and BOC to develop the project, called White Rose, in co-operation with National Grid, which will provide the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure.
It is the first large-scale carbon capture and storage project in the EU.
On behalf of Capture Power, CEO Leigh Hackett, said: “We’re delighted that the European Commission has made this important NER300 award decision in favour of the White Rose Project.
“We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix. CCS is an important technology providing clean, reliable and cost competitive electricity with the potential to contribute greatly to the decarbonisation of global power markets.”
Peter Boreham, director of business development at National Grid said: “It is great news for the project to be selected for the NER300 award. It shows continued commitment to CCS in the UK and Europe and is the next step towards a CCS network in the Yorkshire and Humber region, in which we can provide the infrastructure and storage solution.”
White Rose is scheduled to form the anchor project for the development of National Grid’s Yorkshire and Humber CO2 transport and storage infrastructure with the potential to enable attractive carbon capture and storage solutions for a variety of energy intensive industries.
The transport infrastructure will have a capacity up to17 million tonnes of CO2 per year through which White Rose will transport around 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Such an infrastructure will help to secure the long-term industrial future of the region which emits 60 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to 19% of all UK emissions.
