Boost to Scots bid for £1bn emissions cash as rival quits race

Published on Monday 9 November 2009 21:51

SCOTLAND'S chances of winning at least £1 billion in funding to capture emissions from power stations have been boosted after a key competitor pulled out of the contest.

ScottishPower has ambitions to win the huge sum of government funding to install carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at Longannet Power Station in Fife.

The firm had been competing against E.ON, which hopes to win the money to install CCS at a new power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, as well as RWE npower, for its power station in Tilbury, Essex.

However, RWE npower yesterday confirmed it had decided withdraw from the competition, blaming the current economic situation.

It has been highlighted that E.ON has admitted it is unable to meet the competition deadline – which has demanded a full-scale working demonstration plant built by 2014. This is due to a decision earlier this year that it would be postponing plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth – which was to have been its host site for the CCS project if it won the technology.

Although E.ON has been allowed to remain in the competition, some experts say this makes ScottishPower the front-runner for the cash.

Professor Stuart Haszeldine, an expert in CCS at Edinburgh University, said there was now just "one obvious winner".

If ScottishPower won the money to retrofit Longannet Power Station, it could pave the way for Scotland to lead the way globally in developing a technology considered crucial for the fight against climate change.

If CCS is developed successfully, it will be able to capture about 90 per cent of the emissions produced by coal-fired power stations – meaning the plants could continue operating without hampering efforts to tackle global warming.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "The government has received two bids – from E.ON and Scottish Power – to proceed to the next stage of the current CCS demonstration competition.

"It is expected contracts for the detailed design stage will be concluded early next year."

Nick Horler, ScottishPower's chief executive, said: "The ScottishPower consortium is ready to demonstrate CCS at a commercial scale at Longannet from 2014 and help the UK realise the massive economic and environmental potential of this revolutionary technology."

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government and UK government both announced yesterday they would no longer allow any new coal power stations without CCS technology.

Previously, the SNP had only insisted on new power stations being "ready" to use the technology, once it was invented.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the move, but argued deadlines for installing CCS technology at existing power stations were not ambitious enough.