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There is more than enough CO2 storage capacity to meet the UK’s storage needs to 2050 - report

Energy Technologies Institute

3 min read

A new report from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI)  has revealed there is substantial CO2 storage capacity to meet the UK’s needs. 


There is more than enough CO2 storage capacity to meet Britain’s needs until 2050 and beyond, according to a new report from the Energy Technologies Institute.

 

The organisation confirmed that large scale storage sites using shared infrastructure and existing low risk technologies would provide the lowest cost route to developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the UK.

 

Based on the appraisal work carried out to date (by ETI and other parties) which covers a broad range of the types of stores available, there appears to be no significant technical barrier that would limit the CCS industry developing at scale in the UK from a number of strategic shoreline hubs.

 

The east coast of England has been identified as a prime location for CCS deployment as it has a large emissions base, there are good sites for large new low carbon power stations and industry and it is close to large, low cost offshore storage sites.

 

Once shared infrastructure has been developed then the decarbonisation of industry by CCS can be rolled out at an attractive cost and the generation of hydrogen and negative emissions developed.

Recently concluded ETI research by a partnership between Heriot Watt and Durham Universities, Element Energy and T2 Petroleum Technology shows that brine production can increase storage capacity and injection rates cost effectively.

Dennis Gammer, the ETI’s CCS Strategy Manager and the report’s author said: “Following the closure of the Government’s CCS commercialisation competition, we have reassessed options for developing the UK’s possible CCS transport and storage infrastructure and found that there is no shortage of potential storage sites, either fully or partially appraised.

“Any attractive CCS projects to developers and the government will need to realise economies of scale at, or relatively shortly after start-up, and because of this are most likely to be large gas power stations delivering strategic infrastructure to enable the later tie-in of industrial emissions.

“For some potential matches of emitter and store options to start small and build quickly may reduce the size of any initial commitment at risk and this offers an additional approach to building a CCS network.”

 

Achieving the UK’s legally binding 2050 carbon targets without deploying any CCS is very likely to result in substantially higher costs. Based on ETI systems modelling delaying its implementation adds an estimated £1-2bn a year throughout the 2020s to the otherwise lowest cost options for an energy system reducing carbon emissions.

CCS is particularly attractive as it is suitable for power generation, the capture of industrial emissions, providing new low carbon energy supplies (eg hydrogen) through the gasification of various feedstocks and delivering “negative emissions” (the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere) when used in combination with Bioenergy (BECCS).

 

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