In the next five years, the U.K.’s Department and Energy and Climate Change “will consider the advice from Lord Oxburgh’s CCS Advisory Group as we explore our future approach to this technology for both power and industrial processes,” according to the agency’s Departmental Plan for 2015 to 2020. The single sentence, referencing the work of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association led by Lord Ron Oxburgh, is the only nod to CCS present in the five-year plan.
The future of CCS in the country has been uncertain following the government’s decision in late November to scrap a £1 billion CCS commercialization competition. According to statements made by government officials since the announcement, the decision was financial and does not reflect disapproval of the technology.
Both CCS projects remaining in the competition at the time of its cancellation — Royal Dutch Shell’s Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; and the White Rose CCS Project in Yorkshire, managed by the Capture Power consortium, which would be a new-build coal-fired power plant with CCS — have since been put on hold.
