THE north-east could be in “pole position” to land up to £1billion of UK Government funding for the country’s first carbon-capture and storage project.
The decision by ministers yesterday to abandon a green-energy scheme at Longannet in Fife has paved the way for the huge investment to be redirected to Peterhead.
The gas-fired power station on the outskirts of the Aberdeenshire town has long been proposed as a base for the pioneering technology – but Longannet was the only site left in the government’s £1billion competition to develop carbon-capture and storage (CCS).
Energy secretary Chris Huhne announced yesterday that plans for the coal-fired scheme in Fife had collapsed – but said funding remained on the table and the government expected bids from Scotland and England.
Environmental groups said last night that Peterhead was the “only logical” site for the CCS project.
Richard Dixon, director of environmental charity WWF Scotland, said: “Lots of valuable research and planning has been done around the Longannet proposal, which could put Scotland in pole position to have a CCS scheme at the existing gas-fired power station at Peterhead or the recently consented gas-fired power station at Cockenzie.”
Juliet Swann, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “If it is true that the length of the pipeline was a problem (at Longannet), then this must bring into question the feasibility of CCS at Hunterston, which means Peterhead is the only logical choice, but can that be done for £1billion?”
However, Banff and Buchan SNP MP Eilidh Whiteford raised fears about the Conservative-Liberal Democrat’s coalition government’s commitment to CCS technology.
“The Peterhead and Longannet proposals were not in competition with one another,” she said.
“One is a gas demonstrator and one is a coal project.
“The Longannet decision does cast doubt on the government’s commitment.”
Development of CCS technology is seen as crucial to reducing carbon emissions from the energy sector.
A Scottish Enterprise study revealed this year that the Peterhead scheme could create 937 jobs and lead to £590million of investment during construction.