Kingsnorth and the Carbon Capture Question

Jim Watson, Sussex Energy Group, SPRU

The development of CCS within the UK is discussed in the context of a potential new coal fired plant at Kingsnorth and the proposal that it would be CCS ready. CCS is seen as critical for GHG mitigation, but technical performance, economics and long term liabilities are very uncertain. Whilst the UK has been a leader in terms of the commitment to demonstration plant, detail on how this will happen is disappointing and has run into problems in terms of policy responses for handling applications for new coal plants before CCS is available. A key policy challenge is the balance between energy versus climate security, linking to coal imports, gas supplies, gas storage and diversity of supply. It is argued that mandatory emissions standard for new power plants would be a useful policy development.