|
Ayrshire Power Limited (APL), the company proposing to build a new multi-fuel power station with demonstration scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) capability at Hunterston, North Ayrshire, Scotland, announced today that its bid for European Union (EU) funding support for the CCS elements of the project has successfully passed the first stage of the application process.
APL’s bid for funding under the EU’s NER 300 demonstration CCS competition, was submitted in February to the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) by Peel Energy Carbon Capture and Storage Ltd (PECCS), a sister company within the Peel Group.
Following an initial assessment, DECC has confirmed that APL’s bid meets the necessary eligibility criteria and therefore have submitted it to the European Commission for detailed consideration by the European Investment Bank.
An announcement on successful applicants is expected to be made in late 2012.
Muir Miller, project director at Ayrshire Power, commented:
“We are delighted that our submission has successfully completed this first phase of the funding process. Given the range of the bids submitted it is very gratifying that DECC have recognised the quality of our application.
“Ayrshire Power is totally committed to delivering a project which, together with other CCS initiatives, will take Scotland one step closer to becoming a world leader in pioneering CCS technology.
“CCS represents a fantastic opportunity for Scotland and for that reason it is vitally important that decision-makers in Scotland, the UK and at European level view the APL project and those from Scottish Power’s at Longannet and Scottish & Southern Energy’s project at Peterhead as complementary rather than competitive.
“Each of the Scottish CCS projects offers something different in terms of their contribution to the future energy mix and it is, therefore, not a case of ‘either/or’. Rather it should be a case of the regulators and the operators working out how best to gain the maximum advantage for this country, for Scottish jobs and our wider economy.”
In addition to its first CCS competition, DECC has committed to a further three CCS projects in the UK. Following on from the EU bid PECCS intends to submit funding applications to the UK demonstration CCS competitions when the programme is finalised by DECC.
Ayrshire Power’s proposals for a new 1852MWe power station with CCS were submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents and Deployment Unit in June 2010. The company is currently working closely with all of the key stakeholders including North Ayrshire Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to address the issues raised by the application and will soon publish an addendum to the original Environmental Statement for further public consultation.
The power station has been designed based on the implementation of CCS technology in line with the latest UK and Scottish Government guidance. Using the latest supercritical power station technology will significantly increase efficiency and thereby reduce coal consumption. Even after allowing for the energy required to operate the CCS facility, the station is expected to be more efficient than any other coal fired power plant in the UK and ultimately would capture 90% of the CO2 produced by the plant.
It is estimated that the new plant could meet the electricity needs of up to 3 million homes. It would create a significant number of jobs in Scotland, including more than 100 professional engineering jobs in Renfrew, around 1,600 construction jobs in North Ayrshire at the peak of the construction phase and approximately 160 on an on-going basis once the plant is up and running. The new plant would require many hundreds of millions of pounds of CCS equipment, much of which could be procured in Scotland, representing a major opportunity for local suppliers.
|
