Clean Energy Infrastructure

Michael Fallon Excerpts

Monday 9th December 2013 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Michael Fallon)]

Preferred bidders in the Government’s £1 billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) commercialisation programme were announced in March 2013. Since then, my Department has taken forward detailed negotiations with these bidders to draw up and agree specifications and contracts for front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies of their projects. Developing CCS infrastructure forms part of the Government’s national infrastructure plan, published last week.

I am pleased to inform Parliament that I intend to award a multi-million pound contract for detailed design and planning, known as a FEED study, to Capture Power Ltd for the White Rose CCS project, which includes the Yorkshire-Humber CCS Trunkline, a carbon dioxide (CO₂) transportation and storage solution to be undertaken by National Grid Carbon Ltd.

The White Rose proposal is to build a new state-of-the-art 426MWe (gross) clean coal power plant with full carbon capture and storage, bringing clean electricity to over 630,000 homes and capturing approximately 2 million tonnes of CO₂ per year. This will link into the planned development of a CO₂ transportation and storage infrastructure which would have capacity for additional CCS projects in the area.

FEED is an important stage in the development of major infrastructure projects. It is a comprehensive programme of engineering, planning and financial work to thoroughly develop the proposal ahead of taking final investment decisions. It represents a significant investment in the project by both the Government and the bidder.

In addition to informing investment decisions, these studies will provide valuable new practical research into this area. We will share the information gathered by these studies with industry, academics and the public through our knowledge transfer programme to help drive forward this important industry.

Negotiations on the FEED study for the other preferred bidder project are still under way. They are progressing positively and we hope to make an announcement on the outcome shortly.