Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) refers to a process of avoiding emissions by CO2 capture, followed by storage, thereby preventing the CO2 from entering the atmosphere. To be useful for climate change mitigation, storage should be for geological time periods, i.e. at least hundreds of thousands of years. The UK is well placed t oexploit CCS because it has large sources of CO2 located within a reasonable distance of geological formations suited for long term storage. There are a number of major demonstrator projects currently ongoing in the UK, with Teesside being a leading area of research and opportunity.

As part of the UK's response to meeting the Energy White Paper targets, Increased energy efficiency and use of renewable energy are seen as the key mechanisms proposed to achieve targets. However the White Paper also suggests the continuing importance of fossil fuels to ensure security of electricity supplies. Using fossil fuels in a low-carbon economy requires their CO2 emissions be reduced.

In 2002, Brian Wilson, the Minister of State for Energy and the Construction Industry, launched a Review into the Feasibility of CO2 Capture and Storage in the UK. More recently, the DTI and Scottish Enterprise in partnership have commissioned a study to assess market opportunities arising from CCS, a copy of the resulting report and associated documents can be downloaded from the Scottish Enterprise link below.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee is currently carrying out investigations into the potential of CCS and the methods of carbon sequestration to reduce UK and global emissions, and also the costs, environmental impacts and public perceptions of CCS. Reports from this committee can be downloaded below.

Carbon Capture and Storage in the North East

The North East is establishing itself as a centre of excellence in CCS and a major project is now underway, led by Renew Tees Valley and Progressive Energy. The North East is ideally suited to CCS and for using carbon sequestration for enhanced oil recovery. The key to this is that the North East, and Teesside in particular, is positioned geographically in exactly the right position for CCS projects that involve Enhanced Oil recovery as the oil fields are generally to the North of the UK yet maximum demand is to the South, so Teesside is the optimum balance where sufficient grid capacity exists to allow transmission and the pipeline length to the target oil fields is viable.

The Teesside CCS project is an exemplar project that:

• will allow coal to be used as part of the energy mix in building new plant to replace the 30 %+ of UK generating plants that are to close over the next 10-15 years. It also enables additional, otherwise unrecoverable oil to be extracted from North Sea oil fields, enabling the UK to be a major oil producer for many years longer
• in the single plant avoids emissions equivalent to 2500 MWe of wind turbines  - for comparison the total wind farm capacity in the UK is 1350 MWe
• can produce electricity at a price comparable with gas CCGT, which has been the lowest cost new entrant plant over the past 15 years.

Further information on this project can be provided by Dermot Roddy at Renew Tees Valley at the email link below or by contacting Peter Whitton, MD of Progressive Energy.

In March 2006, the North East hosted an invite-only event on Carbon Capture and Storage as part of the DTI's Energy Review. This saw the major UK experts on CCS converging on Middlesbrough in Teesside to assess the potential for CCS to contribute to the UK's energy provision. The keynote speech was delivered by the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks. A report of the event is available from the DTI Energy Review stakeholder events pages on their website.

Parliamentary Office Science and Technology POSTnote on CCS, March 2005

POSTnote from the ongoing work of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The report discusses the potential of CCS to reduce UK and global emissions, and also the costs, environmental impacts and public perceptions of CCS