Costs play dampener on CCS

After the brake on the US FutureGen project and closure of a CCS unit in West Virginia, now it is the turn of UK to face some truths in the area.

A major carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project planned in Scotland may soon bite the dust. The project, slated for the Longannet coal power station, to the northeast of Edinburgh, has been heavily supported by the government, but apparently the price tag might be too high in current economic and political conditions.

The Longannet station owned by ScottishPower, has a massive generating capacity of more than 2300 megawatts. The idea was to capture some of the CO2 emissions and bury them under the North Sea. But the report in The Guardian noted: "The investment case for CCS remains uncertain due to the absence of a firm timetable and a clear roadmap for how these demonstrations will enable and form part of a large scale deployment of CCS in the UK."

The report also notes that most likely 20 to 30 gigawatts of CCS-fitted power plants must be in operation by 2030 in order to meet emissions targets and a growing energy demand.

Perhaps CCS is an idea before its time, at least for now!