UK CCS industry hit by Drax exit from the White Rose project

Prospects for the development of a UK carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry based on coal-fired power stations have been damaged by the exit of project partner Drax from Capture Power Ltd, developer of the proposed White Rose CCS project in Yorkshire. Drax operates the largest, and last major coal-fired power station to be built, in the UK – which is currently in a stage-by-stage process of conversion to being predominantly biomass-fuelled.

Drax announced in September that it remained committed to fulfilling its current work on a CCS feasibility and technology development project but, once this is completed it would not be investing further and will withdraw as a partner of Capture Power. The two year project being developed by the Capture Power partnership – made up of Drax, Alstom and BOC – is looking at the potential to capture up to 90% of carbon emissions from a new coal-fired power station, to be located on land adjacent to Drax, and store them beneath the North Sea. The project is due to conclude during the next 6–12 months, says Drax.

However, Drax confirmed that, while it would cease to commit further investment, it will continue to make its site, along with the infrastructure at the power plant, available for the project to be built. Remaining consortium partners Alstom and BOC have confirmed their commitment to developing the project and participating in the government’s CCS Commercialisation Programme. A second project – Peterhead in Scotland – is also completing feasibility studies under the programme.

Drax cites the changing financial and regulatory environment as the reason for its withdrawal, adding that the company instead aims to explore the potential for converting a fourth (of six) generating unit to run on biomass.

Meanwhile, recent suggestions in the press that the Department of Energy and Climate Change plans to set 2023 as the date by which all coal-fired power stations must switch to another fuel, fit CCS equipment or close down, are complicating the picture. Coal was responsible for 30% of electricity generated in the UK during 2014; but most of the coal was imported from Russia, the US and Colombia after indigenous coal production hit an all-time low.

The White Rose CCS project nevertheless demonstrates the potential for the UK region of Yorkshire and the Humber to become the leading low carbon industrial zone in Europe, according to a new TUC report: Strategies for a low-carbon industrial future in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The report, which results from a partnership between trade unions and industry with support from the European Commission, says that Yorkshire and the Humber is the prime region for a low carbon industrial zone because it is a UK centre for both energy generation and energy-intensive industries. It has three coal-fired power stations, five gas-fired power stations and a combined heat and power (CHP) station. It produces around 17% of all the UK’s electricity and is a net exporter of energy to industries in neighbouring northern regions. Energy-intensive industries include steel, chemicals, refineries, cement works and glass works.

Yorkshire and the Humber’s coastline also has suitable seabed geology for storage of carbon dioxide, adds the report.

Chief Executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association Dr Luke Warren said: ‘We are in a critical period now for CCS in the UK, as the government will decide early next year whether to proceed with the White Rose and Peterhead projects. If ministers fail to see them through, it could severely set back the UK’s ability to meet climate change goals at least cost. And it would jeopardise the future of key industries.’