New study to look at CO2 offshore storage capacity

The Energy Technologies Institute will today launch a £3.5m project to evaluate the potential of sites around the UK for storing carbon dioxide.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has made carbon capture and storage (CCS) a key part of its commitment to tackling emissions, but while it is assumed depleted North Sea oil and gas fields will represent an ideal storage site for capture CO2, estimates on the scale of those fields vary and little detailed work has been undertaken to identify viable storage sites.

ETI chief executive David Clarke said obtaining a more accurate estimate of storage capacity will enable the government and other parties to determine the realistic extent to which carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be deployed in the UK.

"Estimates of the amount of capacity available vary widely so this will provide a comprehensive picture of all potential UK offshore storage areas," he said.

"CCS is a complex challenge and requires us to demonstrate a whole new aspect of UK energy operations in the next 10 years. We have to move quickly in a focused way to do this and the ETI storage appraisal project is a key element. "

The project, known as the United Kingdom CO2 Storage Appraisal Project (UKSAP), is led by Senergy Alternative Energy and will receive technical contributions from the British Geological Survey, the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage, Durham University, GeoPressure Technology, Geospatial Research, Imperial College London, RPS Energy and Element Energy. It is due to be completed by March 2011.

Nial McCollam, managing director of Senergy Alternative Energy, said the survey will assist policy-makers as they attempt to select the best locations for new CCS plants. "Of course this is exactly the sort of analysis that will allow policy-makers and industry to move forward with greater confidence to ensure the UK effectively pursues and implements large-scale CO2 storage," he said.

The announcement comes just days after the UK's CCS policy was thrown into limbo by the announcement that E.ON is to delay indefinitely its plans for a new coal-fired power plant featuring CCS technology at Kingsnorth.

The energy giant said that the delay was due to falling energy demand as a result of the recession, but industry watchers said the decision had likely been influenced by uncertainty over how the government plans to fund the carbon capture technology.

E.ON said it remains in the running for the government's £1bn competition to build a CCS demonstration plant and could restart the project if the economic case for the plant improves.