The UK Coalition Government yesterday confirmed that it has put forward 12 projects to be considered for funding under the EU’s €4.5 billion carbon capture and renewables scheme.

Up to three projects per member state can be supported under the New Entrant Reserve (NER) scheme, which is raising funds by selling off 300 million allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

The UK applications submitted by the May 9 deadline include seven carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and five renewable energy schemes.

In England, the CCS projects going forward are Progressive Energy’s pre-combustion coal gasification project on Teeside; Alstom’s oxyfuel coal-fired power station on its Drax site in Yorkshire; C.GEN’s pre-combustion integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power station in Killingholme, Yorkshire; and another IGCC power station – the Don Valley Power Project, which was formerly Powerfuel’s Hatfield project.

2CoEnergy, which was selected as the preferred bidder for Powerfuel Power after its parent company went into administration late last year, will now lead the Don Valley Power Project.

Two of the original line-up – one from the Humber region and the other from Teeside – have withdrawn from the final competition.

In Scotland, all three projects are going forward: Peel Energy CCS’ post-combustion development at its Ayrshire coal-fired powerstation; SSE’s retrofit of its Peterhead power station; and Scottish Power Generation’s retrofit of its coal-fired Longannet facility.

The five renewables projects in the line for funding include the Pentland Orkney Wave Energy Resource (POWER) project to deploy Aquamarine Oyster and Pelamis wave energy converters off the Orkneys; a tidal array of Marine Current Turbines’ SeaGen devices in Kyle Rhea, Islay; the MeyGen Tidal Stream project to deploy Atlantis Resources and Rolls Royce/Tidal Generation turbines in the Pentland Firth; Scottish Power Renewables’ demonstration tidal array of Hammerfest Strom turbines in the Sound of Islay; and a single wind project, which will deploy Clipper Wind Power’s 10 MW offshore turbines off Blythe in Northumberland.

For further information:
ec.europa.eu/clima/funding/ner300/index_en.htm
www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/ccs/ccs.aspx
www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/renewable/renewable.aspx