Crown estate lease puts Peterhead in front in carbon capture race

Thursday, 19 July 2012 07:08

Banff and Buchan MP Eilidh Whiteford has welcomed confirmation from the Crown Estate that the UK's first agreement for lease (AfL) for the permanent geological storage of carbon dioxide has been signed with the Peterhead CCS Project at the offshore depleted Goldeneye gas field.

The decision paves the way for plans to capture carbon dioxide from the Peterhead power plant in Dr Whiteford’s constituency.

The SNP MP is now urging the UK Government to press on and make an early funding decision on the Peterhead project which has faced uncertainty as a result of Treasury delays in two previous CCS competitions.

Dr Whiteford said:

“This is good news from the Crown Estate which again puts the Peterhead project out in front – we now need the UK Government to put its money where its mouth is and deliver the funding to make this happen.

“After two previous competitions which came to nothing and Treasury confusion on the availability of the fund it essential that the UK Government seize the moment. We need a clear guarantee and timetable from the UK Ministers.

“Previous delays mean that other countries are powering ahead with their projects, leaving us in their wake rather than leading the race.

“The UK Government must now recognise the very strong case which exists for the Peterhead Project going ahead.

“Scotland has some of Europe’s largest carbon storage reserves in our North Sea oil and gas fields combined with the expertise on how to access them. And carbon capture investment can also be a key driver of economic recovery in Scotland. For the sake of both the environment and the economy, we need progress now.”

More information can be found here on the Crown Estate website:

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/news-media/news/2012/first-agreement-for-uk-carbon-dioxide-storage/

Comments

# Wee-Scamp 2012-07-19 09:51

OK ..... Some reality please.

Firstly, it's important people understand that the Treasury will do anything it can to avoid investing in new technology as it would much prefer others did all the tech development so the UK can simply buy what it wants from them when we want it. This enables their pals in the City to provide lots of credit which is easier than investing in tech companies.

Secondly, pretty much all the technology involved in the Peterhead proposal would be supplied by overseas companies. In fact most of the critical stuff would come from Norwegian companies. So the gain for Scotland will be minimal. Some design work possibly and some low value adding construction stuff.

Norway has recently announced its own CCS project at Mongstad which is being developed in collaboration with Shell. So once again the Norwegians have beaten us to it. No surprise there. They always do.

However, the consequence of this is that the UK Govt will probably just decide to let the Norwegians do their stuff and sit back and watch what happens.

What Scotland should be doing is looking at other, cheaper alternatives such as feeding CO2 to Algae to produce lipids (oil) and other products such as proteins. These technologies are gathering pace in the USA and Australia and there's no reason we shouldn't be looking at them here.

# scottish_skier 2012-07-19 11:54

"so the UK can simply buy what it wants from them when we want it."

Which all too often involved purchasing from private companies which just happen to have UK MPs/ex-MPs/Lords or family/friends as board members/major shareholders etc. All entirely coincidental of course...

# Wee-Scamp 2012-07-19 12:45

Well possibly but in fact most of those companies will be foreign owned and very often foreign based.

# Lupus Incomitatus 2012-07-20 21:29

Wee Scamp

We don't have enough sunlight and the use of electrical light is energetically negative.

That is why these CO2 bio-fixing projects are in Arizona and Oz.

# ButeHouse 2012-07-21 17:20

“Previous delays mean that other countries are powering ahead with their projects, leaving us in their wake rather than leading the race."

As long as it's not Scotland leading the race Eilidh, that, as I'm sure you know is the important thing, especially at this crucial stage in UK history, i.e. trying to save the union.

But keep up the good work, we'll get there in the end.

VOTE YES in 2014

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Crown estate lease puts Peterhead in front in carbon capture race

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