Policy Research Media Morhamburn

On May 1, 2009, the Scottish Government published ‘Opportunities for CO2 Storage Around Scotland,’ which was widely trailed as the most comprehensive study of carbon capture and storage so far conducted in the United Kingdom.

Included among the report’s key findings were the following observations:

Scotland has the ability to safely accommodate industrial emissions generated in the UK for the next 200 years under the Northern and Central areas of the Scottish sector of the North Sea;

Scotland’s offshore storage capacity for carbon emissions is greater than the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany combined; and

There are real economic opportunities in developing storage hubs and pipeline networks for Europe.

The UK emits more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The quantity has increased steadily since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century and reached a peak late in the last century. Carbon capture and storage technology, argues the Scottish Government, would reduce Scotland’s carbon dioxide disposal in the atmosphere by more than 40 per cent. A major reduction by anyone’s reckoning – particularly so by a country which has eschewed nuclear power and has set itself some of the most ambitious climate change targets in the world.

On the face of it, carbon capture and storage technology appears simple. One takes the carbon dioxide produced by coal-fired power stations, turns it into liquid using chemicals and then buries it deep under the sea in natural containers: old oil and gas fields such as those in the North Sea.

And if it’s cheaper and safer than nuclear waste storage and does not require landfill space, then there shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong. Carbon capture and storage opponents argue that the technology has not been proven yet and that it would also prove costly. They also contend that any new coal-fired power stations planned before the new technology can properly be applied would signal that Scotland was not serious about its stringent climate change commitments.

Hence the furore surrounding plans lodged by Peel Energy/Ayrshire Power with the Scottish Government on Monday for a 1.6 gigawatt coal-fired power station at Hunterston, North Ayrshire; the first in the UK to use carbon capture storage technology and the first fossil-fuelled plant planned for Scotland since Lognannet, Fife, in 1973.

Friends of the Earth, WWF, Labour and Green MSPs have all called on the Scottish Government to scrap plans for the plant in the media. Hunterston was also the focus of heated exchanges during the Labour-inspired debate on Climate Change in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, which also saw Green MSP Patrick Harvie introduce an amendment against the power station which was supported by Labour and the Lib Dems.

During the debate Mr Harvie said: “This project is going nowhere, and if they (the Scottish Government) proceed they will be wasting taxpayers’ time and money as well as their own. The game is up for new coal plants in Scotland…”

Labour’s Lewis Macdonald said: “Carbon capture and storage offers huge potential for reducing harmful emissions in future, but the technology has still to be proven at scale…”

While a new fossil-fuelled power plant using carbon capture technology might not – at least at this moment – fit Scotland’s wholesome environmentally-friendly agenda, the adoption of CCS technology should still be actively encouraged, particularly at plants such as Longannet, which would ensure projects such as Hunterston could be both commercially and well as environmentally viable.

As the price of carbon emissions permits slowly rises clean, green energy projects are increasingly going to make more sense. With Scotland’s geological assets, including coal reserves, the country could set a blueprint for carbon capture technology development for the future – which would also have the added spin-off of potentially helping to create over 10,000 new jobs.

In 2007, Scotland saw BP scrap its planned carbon capture plant at Peterhead. Scotland has been given another chance with Longannet – and indeed with Hunterston. Second chances do not come around that often and carbon capture should be grasped – before someone else entices the expertise, capital and interest away.

It should also be remembered that growing economic powerhouses such as China and India are not going to give up their reliance on fossil fuels any time soon. They will require – at least at some stage in their future energy development – carbon capture and storage technology. Let’s hope it is to Scotland that they turn as the world centre for excellence in this technology – and not one of this country’s competitors.

[The views expressed by Morhamburn people in their blogs are theirs and theirs alone. they do not represent the thoughts of the company as a whole or our clients. If you have a comment to make on any blog, please email info@morhamburn.com and we’ll put the printable ones up on the website]