Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
2/27/2015
The United Kingdom has run out of time to develop new technologies to meet its climate goals, but instead must invest in known but neglected technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, according to a report released last week by the Energy Technologies Institute, a U.K. public-private partnership. “There is no time to invent and deploy a set of novel breakthrough technologies and the cost of adaptation will inevitably be higher than the cost of mitigation. The UK can allow itself a 35-year transition to low carbon, by developing, commercialising and integrating known but currently underdeveloped solutions,” the report says. “We have to develop options and explore trade-offs, while also testing our technical, operating, business and regulatory models at a sufficient scale to give stakeholders the confidence they need to commit to full-scale implementation.”
The United Kingdom well suited to develop CCS to meet its energy goals, but the technology has been underutilized. The North Sea provides substantial opportunity for off-shore storage according to ETI, which has identified 78GTe of “unrisked” potential storage capacity in U.K. waters. “The UK is ideally placed to achieve a significant proportion of its emissions reductions to 2050 and beyond through carbon capture and storage (CCS). The country has more than enough potential CCS capacity in the shape of saline aquifers and depleted offshore oil and gas reservoirs,” according to the report.
Lack of Policy Challenging CCS Deployment
The main hurdle in getting CCS off the ground in the UK, according to ETI, is the lack of supporting policy. “Although CCS preparedness is back on track with the White Rose and Peterhead projects, market mechanisms for supporting further initiatives are untested and are not found beyond the power sector,” the report says, noting two CCS projects in the early stages of development. “Electricity Market Reform has been introduced, including Contracts for Difference for low-carbon power generation, but the details are still emerging. Further indications of how this approach will work in practice, together with the overall funding available for CCS, will be needed in order to give lenders confidence,” the report says.
The report further notes that “no policy is in place to encourage investment in CCS beyond the power sector, even though most of the value of CCS ultimately lies in industrial deployment, negative emissions, synthetic natural gas, and hydrogen generation. Unless support mechanisms are created in these areas, the full value of CCS will remain elusive, along with the UK’s ability to meet its targets cost-effectively.”
