The UK needs to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects to achieve its climate change targets economically, according to the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
A first commercial carbon capture and storage plant is necessary to meet the targets and for the industry to progress, the partnership between global companies and the UK government said.
Achieving Britain’s legally binding 2050 carbon targets without deploying any CCS is very likely to result in substantially higher costs, it said. Delaying its implementation could add about £1-2bn a year throughout the 2020s.
The institute believes existing technologies can be used to capture CO2 and that the UK is well placed for the technology due to its significant storage capacity without technical barriers.
No more than six shoreline hubs and 20 offshore stores are needed to deploy CCS effectively in the country, it said.
“CCS is critical to decarbonising the UK power, heat and transport sectors, through providing reliable, low carbon electricity generation and the cost-effective production of hydrogen,” ETI CCS programme manager Andrew Green said.
“Although critics have claimed it is expensive our analysis has shown that the costs and risks to the UK’s decarbonisation pathway could actually be reduced by bringing forward, rather than delaying, the deployment of CCS.”
“The key to early cost reduction for CCS is through the deployment of investable projects rather than creating new capture technology platforms.”
Image: CCS plant (Energy Technologies Institute)
