Government gives coal go-ahead
May 6, 2009
The Government has signalled the go-ahead for up to four new coal-fired power stations before 2020 as they are "important for our energy mix", but will be insisting that all new plants will have to reduce their carbon emissions by new technology that can trap and store a proportion of their carbon dioxide underground.
The new carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) has not yet been tested on a commercial scale, but fitting it will add an estimated 2% on energy bills by 2020.
The Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, said that "the era of new, unabated coal has come to an end" and that the clean scheme would be the "most environmentally ambitious of any country in the world, and puts us in a world leadership position on CCS and coal".
If the technology is independently judged as technically and commercially proven, the power stations will then be required to have CCS fitted to cover 100% of their energy output by 2025. Research also suggests that carbon abatement technologies could sustain 50,000 jobs by 2030.
Environment Agency Chairman, Lord Smith, said carbon capture for coal power represented a fundamental element of a sustainable energy policy. He added that such a policy should embrace combined heat and power, carbon-free coal and gas, safe nuclear power and a significant increase in the generation of energy from renewable sources.
Lord Smith also welcomed the central part that will be played by the Environment Agency in bringing the new technology into operation - the Agency will be responsible for assessing the technical and commercial viability of CCS. He said the Agency had been pressing for the introduction of this technology for some time and promised that it would do all it could to facilitate its rapid development.
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