UK to Host CCS-Enabled Coal Power Plant

A site at Hunterston, near Largs, in the United Kingdom, will become the place where the first experimental coal-fired power plant outfitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be built. The earliest stages of the planning process for the new facility have begun today, and, if the project is completed, it would be the first such facility to be constructed in England. Behind the initiative is the company Ayrshire Power, which would like to see the new power plant up and running as fast as possible, the BBC News reports.

CCS technologies are largely touted as one of the most effective and necessary means of preventing the spreading of global warming and climate change. The method acts at the very root of the problem, preventing the smokestacks on power plants from releasing the dangerous greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide in the first place. The emission fumes are cleaned before being released into the atmosphere and the CO2 is trapped underground. But this approach is very expensive, which is why not many sites relying on it exist in the world.

But for this particular power plant, things are even worse. Environmental activists say that its construction could send out the wrong message, especially because the Hunterston area is currently at the center of a legal dispute about classifying it as a national park. “Carbon capture and storage is potentially a way to reach a low-carbon future. However, the carbon benefits are not yet proven and in any case it should be demonstrated on existing plants first, not least so we can share the technology with the rest of the world and in doing so repay our debt to them for supplying us with so much of our dirty energy,” explains Friends of the Earth Scotland head of campaigns, Juliet Swann.

“We are also concerned that this application is being made at a time when the inclusion of Hunterston in the national planning framework is the subject of a legal challenge. We would suggest Ayrshire Power should undertake a full and comprehensive local and national consultation, given the implications of this development both on the local area and the national ambition to move to a clean energy future,” the representative added.

“Claims that it will be a clean power station are totally misleading. Even if carbon capture technology could be proven to work, only around 20% of the emissions are required to be 'captured' under government regulations. We are also angry at Ayrshire Power's failure to consult with local people on their plans,” added a spokesperson for Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston (Conch), a local campaign group that labels the new plans as being a “massive con.”