Scots power station handed chance to lead world in carbon capture technology

SCOTTISHPower is on the verge of clinching a deal to create one of the world's first commercial-scale clean coal plants at its Longannet power station, after rival E.ON pulled out of a Government funding race.

The German-owned company, which was shortlisted alongside ScottishPower to win a 1bn grant to create a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility, said it felt the market was not conducive to continuing with the project at its Kingsnorth plant in Kent.

Now, if ScottishPower meets a string of tough criteria, it should receive the funding within a year.

Chancellor George Osborne said the project would not suffer from the cuts announced in yesterday's Comprehensive Spending Review.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), which is running the competition, said it was "not a done deal", but ScottishPower and its partners Marathon Oil Corporation, Aker Clean Carbon and Aker Solutions, would win the money as long as they met the department's standards.

"It is no longer a competition and is now a procurement process," she said.

"CCS has significant potential for demonstration and deployment in the UK - we have some of the best CO storage sites in the world, as well as the unparalleled engineering expertise needed to make this technology work at commercial scale."

A Scottish energy source said: "Essentially, E.ON has now pulled out of the competition so, if ScottishPower meets the criteria, they'll get the money. Scotland can now lead the world in CCS technology."

CCS, which would allow emission-producing coal plants to store their carbon emissions underground, has not yet been developed at scale. It is hoped the technology will slash emissions from power stations by up to 90 per cent. The coalition Government has said it forms part of its plan to drive the UK towards a low-carbon energy system.

Environmental groups believed that Longannet, as an existing power plant which would use a "retrofit" CCS system, was more suitable for a CCS trial than Kingsnorth, where E.ON planned to build a new facility.

Dr Richard Dixon, WWF Scotland director, said: "It's great news that the plans at Kingsnorth have been killed off.

"A new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth would have led to increased climate pollution. This would have been a disastrous setback for the UK given its need to decarbonise the power sector by 2030."

Thomas Docherty, Labour MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, added: "I appreciate that due process must now be followed, but I will continue to champion the Longannet project until the spring, when the final decision is taken."

A spokesman for ScottishPower said: "Our consortium remains committed to the carbon capture and storage project at Longannet, and we are on schedule with our front-end engineering and design work."