CCS partnership

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have formed a joint-venture partnership that might potentially lead to the development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project in the UK.

Swindon-based RWE npower currently has a 75 per cent stake in Peel Energy CCS, which was formerly jointly owned by Peel Energy and DONG Energy. The restructured joint venture has pre-qualified for the UK’s CCS Demonstration competition – a government-backed initiative aimed at showcasing CCS technologies on a commercial scale.

The group expects to enter proposals for a carbon capture facility with a capacity of 400MW that would form part of a new cleaner supercritical coal-fired power station. The facility intends to transport the CO₂ to disused gas fields in the North Sea, where it would be permanently stored. According to the companies, this project could be operational by 2014.

In a separate project, RWE npower has commissioned a test facility at its Didcot coal-fired power station in Oxfordshire to capture carbon using Post-Combustion (PCC) and Oxyfuel carbon capture methods. The company also plans to begin construction of a CCS pilot plant at its Aberthaw coal-fired station in Wales next year.

RWE npower’s chief executive Andrew Duff said: ‘Energy companies cannot commit to commercial investment in CCS on a new power station until the technology is proven and seen to be economically feasible. This could be a major barrier to the construction of much needed new build power plants and so this project is vital to unblocking the potential for coal to play its part in the UK’s long-term energy mix.

‘Clean coal generation is vital in order for us to reconcile the often conflicting interests of security, environment and affordability, given the impending closure of many of our older power stations.’