£4.2 million worth of government funding has been made available to carry out a feasibility study for the proposed Caledonian Clean Energy Project. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has given funding of £1.7 million, while the Scottish government has given £2.5 billion in funding.
The money will enable the Summit Power Group, who are based in Seattle, to carry out an intensive research and a feasibility study for the full–chain 570 MW Carbon-Capture-Storage (CCS) coal-gasification power station, which is planned for Grangemouth.
According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the feasibility study and research phase will help to plan the design, sighting, and financing of the power station as well as the building work that will be required.
Commenting on the funding, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said:
“Carbon Capture and Storage could be crucial in helping us meet our ambitious climate change goals. The UK is one of the world’s frontrunners in this sector and the UK Government is leading Europe with its support of the two competition projects at Peterhead in Scotland and White Rose in Yorkshire.
“Developing CCS more widely is vital if it is to become cost-competitive technology, and I’m excited at the prospect of Grangemouth contributing to the UK’s low carbon future.
Development Work
The next phase of making the Grangemouth project a reality will involve carrying out the research and development work, which is scheduled to last for 18 months. The results of this aspect of the project are important; there are plans to share it across the industry to help boost the understanding of successfully developing and deploying carbon capture storage commercially.
Unique project
The project at Grangemouth is the first of its kind, and if it is successful, it will combine a state-of-the-art coal gasification and carbon capture technologies all into one individual unit.
The carbon capture storage technology would make it possible to retain the majority of the CO2 emissions that escape; these would then be transported off the site via onshore pipelines, which would then be stored deep under the North Sea.
Carbon Emissions Pledge
The government has pledged to take action to reduce carbon emissions and it has come up with numerous initiatives to encourage companies to come up with solutions to emit CO2 emissions and to fund greener forms of technology. If the Grangemouth project is implemented successfully in the future it will offer another way to reduce carbon emissions.