Evidence presented to Energy Bill 2010 Committee

Abstract

2020 Vision - will the 2010 Energy Bill be enough to get CCS where it needs to be by the end of the next decade, and beyond to 2030? - A memorandum to the Energy Bill Committee - The financial support for carbon capture and storage (CCS) proposed in the 2010 Energy Bill is very welcome, but should be extended to power plants fuelled by natural gas and biomass alone, as well as to the currently specified plants fuelled by coal and biomass co-fired with coal. The full decarbonisation of the electric power sector by 2030 recommended by the Committee on Climate Change is likely to require progressively greater numbers of individual fossil power plants to be fitted with CCS between 2020 and 2030. Many of these units will be gas fired, so reference CCS plants for gas must be in place before this transition can properly be planned. The principle of CCS on biomass, which effectively removes CO2 from the air, should also be encouraged.