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DECC update on CCS shows sustainable energy issues "working their way up the political agenda", says expert

21 Oct 2013, 11:55 am

Sustainable energy issues are "working their way up the political agenda", an expert has said, as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published a progress report on the development of commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS).

DECC's report follows on from recommendations made by the CCS Cost Reduction Task Force earlier this year, and the publication of the Government's own CCS Roadmap in 2012. It reiterates the Government's commitment to "supporting CCS and other promising low carbon technologies to a state of maturity where decisions about deployment can be taken by the market", based on breaking down the barriers that prevent projects from coming forward and providing the right incentives and environment for the industry to develop.

"Our approach is focussed on reducing the cost of CCS so that it can compete effectively with other low carbon technologies," DECC said in the report's introduction. "Our £1bn CCS Commercialisation Programme Competition is intended to bring forward the first commercial scale projects in the UK to help realise the commercial potential of this technology. Beyond this we want CCS to develop into a strong industry and would like to see further phases of projects coming forward."

Such projects could reduce costs by using existing infrastructure, and through a potential link-up with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies, the report said. The report also sets out policy developments in related areas, including planning law and the electricity market reform (EMR) package.

Energy and environmental law expert Jacqueline Cook of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the findings of the report were consistent with other recent pushes for electricity development, which had also "exposed the need for a holistic approach" to energy projects.

"As grid network upgrades are required alongside new electricity generating assets, the infrastructure network of which CCS assets will form a part must itself be fit for purpose," she said. "Towards this end, DECC actively encourages clustering and asset sharing and anticipates refreshed planning policy to support CCS delivery."

"DECC specifically mentions the importance of CCS-specific spatial planning strategies and its duty under the 2008 Planning Act to review national policy statements (NPSs) to ensure they are appropriate. As CCS Competition projects 'field-test' the consenting regime, we should be on the look out for changes to the Overarching Energy National Policy Statement (EN-1). This establishes the need for major infrastructure development and is the most appropriate forum for refinements to CCS spatial provision in the short to medium term," she said.

CCS is a technology used to prevent CO2 from being released into the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuels in power generation. A CCS project captures the carbon dioxide produced by a power plant before storing it in such a way that it does not enter the atmosphere. Projects can be 'full chain', meaning that they are capable of carrying out all steps in the process, or 'part chain'.

The Government's CCS Roadmap set out its plans to encourage the development of CCS technology in the UK through funding packages and investment incentives. It has made £1 billion capital funding available through its CCS Commercialisation Programme for CCS full chain projects, or part chain projects capable of being part of a full chain project in the future. CCS has been endorsed by the Government as a means of potentially generating significant quantities of low-carbon electricity, and projects will also be entitled to incentives under the new contracts for difference (CfD) regime for energy projects.

In its recent report, the CCS Cost Reduction Task Force set out seven recommendations that should be adopted to support UK CCS projects and suggested that studies should be established to examine how pipeline networks could be set up to transport CO2. It also suggested the creation of three national groups to take forward these actions in the areas of storage development, commercial development and knowledge transfer. According to DECC's new report, the industry is taking the lead on these groups. In addition, DECC plans to re-establish its formal stakeholder engagement forum on a smaller, more focused basis. This will be co-chaired by Michael Gibbons, chair of industry body the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA).