The United Kingdom’s National Audit Office has officially launched a review of the scrapping of the country’s £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition. The review, listed on the office’s website as a “work in progress,” is due out this summer. “The NAO will review the Government decision and how the Department [of Energy and Climate Change] acted; … what impacts the decision will have on the Department’s objectives of decarbonisation and security of supply; and the costs incurred by government in running the latest competition,” according to the website.
The U.K. launched the commercialization competition in 2012 and in 2013 shortlisted two projects: Capture Power’s White Rose in Yorkshire and Royal Dutch Shell’s Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. These projects were awarded multimillion-pound contracts to finalize the proposals before a final investment decision could be taken. The U.K. announced on Nov. 25 the official cancellation of the competition, after which Capture Power and Shell both said their projects are unlikely to move forward.
