CCS, the process of capturing carbon emission during the power generation process, has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 80-90% and has been identified as playing a vital role in meeting the UK’s emissions targets.
However, progress has stalled in recent years with continued uncertainty about how CCS will be funded and lack of a coherent regulatory framework.
Geoff French, vice president of ICE, said: “The UK was quick on the uptake in the global race to deploy CCS but now we have fallen behind other nations. If we want to keep a competitive lead and take advantage of the export opportunity it presents, progress needs to be greatly accelerated.
“We have the skills and the expertise to deliver global solutions – all we’re waiting on is Government to take the lead and provide the steps to get us there. In the current climate there is no incentive for utility providers to sink billions of pounds into projects that have no certain future.”
The ICE report “Carbon Capture and Storage – Time to Deliver” features papers from six experts on different aspects of CCS including regulation, storage, transportation, investment, pre and post combustion alternatives and its role in creating a low carbon economy.
Jeff Chapman, chief executive of Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said: “We are at a cross roads in developing carbon capture and storage in the UK. The potential benefits, both financial and in terms of decarbonising our electricity supply, are massive and we are ideally placed in terms of geological storage to develop CCS at a commercial scale. We led the world in developing wind power but lost out to other countries. Let’s not let CCS go the same way.”
