The north-east’s hopes of leading the world in a lucrative clean-energy technology will receive a major boost from UK ministers next week.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey is believed to be poised to travel to Peterhead to sign off the next stage of the town’s ambitious carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
The Liberal Democrat minister is expected to rubber-stamp a multimillion-pound study to pave the way for the world’s first full-scale CCS scheme at a gas power station.
The Press and Journal has learned that Mr Davey will visit Peterhead to approve the advanced design work while he is in the north-east for a UK Cabinet meeting on Monday.
A source in Westminster’s coalition government also indicated that UK ministers could use the trip to Aberdeen to publish the final recommendations of Sir Ian Wood’s review into the future of North Sea oil and gas production.
Oil giant Shell is leading the plans for a CCS plant at SSE’s power station at Peterhead.
A total of 10million tonnes of harmful CO2 would be captured at the site over a decade, and stored in a depleted North Sea gas field 62 miles offshore.
Once proven, government ministers hope the technology will clean up the power sector, help meet ambitious carbon reduction targets, and become a valuable resource for export.
The Peterhead scheme is one of two preferred bidders for the UK Government’s £1billion CCS competition fund, and would create hundreds of north-east jobs during the construction phase.
The Press and Journal revealed this month that the plans had been dealt a blow after a final decision on the £1billion was put back from early 2015 to 2016, because of delays in signing-off the design work.
A coal-based CCS scheme at the Drax power station in north Yorkshire – the other preferred bidder – was approved in December, and Peterhead was widely expected to follow suit early in 2014.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage research group said: “We look forward to hearing confirmation that the Peterhead CCS project has secured UK Government funding for its design study.
“It will join the White Rose CCS project in Yorkshire on a pathway to demonstrating that full-chain CCS offers a viable and safe route to tackling the UK’s carbon emissions. It would be the world’s first CCS project on gas-fired power, which will be important given a shift towards gas in the UK’s energy mix.
“Given the existing oil and gas infrastructure, skills base, and proximity to CO2 storage assets offshore, Peterhead is well placed to help Europe move towards commercial-scale CCS.”
