While the cancellation of the United Kingdom’s £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition in November was disappointing, there are still lessons to be learned from the two projects that remained in the running at the time, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Carbon Capture & Storage Association. The report found that CCS technology is well understood and that any barriers to its development are in the commercial, financial, and policy areas.
The two projects remaining in contention at the time of the competition’s termination were Capture Power’s White Rose project and Shell’s Peterhead project. Both had nearly completed their front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies, the information from which was recently released by the U.K. government in the form of “Key Knowledge Deliverables (KKDs)” reports.
The new CCSA report is based on interviews with officials from Capture Power, Shell, and other companies interested in developing CCS projects. “The report highlights that there were no technical barriers to delivery but that any future CCS programme will have to address a number of outstanding commercial challenges. The report also clearly shows that CCS has significant potential for rapid cost reduction,” Luke Warren, CCSA chief executive, said in a press release.
Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage, a Scotland-based CCS research group, praised the report. “SCCS welcomes the launch today of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association’s (CCSA) new report highlighting 36 crucial lessons for industry and policy makers resulting from the UK’s cancelled Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Competition,” an SCCS press release says. “Despite entering a period of uncertainty in the UK across different sectors, following the referendum result on European Union membership, action on climate change remains an essential goal.”
