Carbon capture and storage: UK's fourth energy pillar, or broken bridge?

Abstract

Mike Stephenson (BGS) and Stuart Haszeldine (University of Edinburgh) were speaking at the "Carbon capture and storage in the north sea: a national asset in a low carbon future" session at the 2009 British Science Festival in Guildford. Talk short summary: CCS power is the only way to burn fossil fuel with lower emissions, and will be essential to fill in electricity generation gaps on weeks when wind does not blow across the EU. CCS is part of the UK plan for a low carbon future, but is progressing too slowly, to be commercially proven when needed. The UK is uniquely advantaged to exploit CCS, with interest from power, transport, and storage companies. Our group has made a comprehensive first evaluation of offshore UK storage, showing that 100 years of not just UK, but also European CO2, could be stored profitably. If this business charged pore space fees, that could be a revenue of £5Bn per year just from storage. Pilot injection could start immediately, and is a needed to solve longer-term capacity uncertainties.