Engineering news
A plan to build a new power station with full carbon capture and storage capability next to the existing Drax facility in north Yorkshire has been given the go-ahead, with the project securing European Union funding worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Capture Power, the developer of the White Rose Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project, welcomed the award decision of up to €300 million under the European NER300 programme.
Located on land adjacent to Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, the 426MW new-build power plant will burn coal with the potential to co-fire sustainable biomass. Fully equipped with CCS technology from the outset, 90% of all the CO2 produced by the plant will be captured and transported by pipeline for permanent off-shore storage deep beneath the North Sea seabed.
Leigh Hackett, chief executive of Capture Power, a joint venture set up by Alstom, Drax and BOC, said: “We’re delighted that the European Commission has made this important NER300 award decision in favour of the White Rose Project. It represents a significant milestone for us in our development programme and an important potential source of funding for the project, as well as providing a strong signal for CCS in Europe.
“We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix. CCS is an important technology providing clean, reliable and cost competitive electricity with the potential to contribute greatly to the decarbonisation of global power markets.”
White Rose is scheduled to form the anchor project for the development of National Grid’s Yorkshire and Humber CO2 transport and storage infrastructure with the potential to enable attractive carbon capture and storage solutions for a variety of energy intensive industries.
The White Rose transport infrastructure will have a capacity up to 17 million tonnes of CO2 per year through which White Rose will transport around 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Such an infrastructure will help to secure the long-term industrial future of the region which emits 60 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to 19% of all UK emissions, said Capture Power.