In a new report, ETI said that the UK Continental Shelf has potential to provide national carbon, capture and storage (CCS) hub for emissions from mainland Europe and the UK.
Produced by Pale Blue Dot Energy, Axis Well Technology and Costain, the report follows a one-year project commissioned by the ETI with £2.5m funding support from the US Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
ETI CCS program manager Andrew Green said: "The results from this project have confirmed the understanding that there are no major technical hurdles to moving industrial scale CO2 storage forward in the UK.
"Indeed the UK could form the basis of a storage resource that could service the needs of many parts of Europe in addition to its own needs."
The project, which is being further developed by the Crown Estate and the British Geological Survey, identified 20 specific CO2 storage sites from a potential 579 sites.
Of these, five sites have been assessed for storing CO2 emissions from both power and industry projects around the UK.
However, the report shows that only of the two sites would require further appraisal drilling, prior to making investment decision.
Green said that the five sites considered for the study have potential to store over 1.5GT of CO2 and could be fully operational by 2030.
Green added: "Our view is that CCS should still play an important role in the long-term decarburization of the UK energy system and continues to offer the lowest cost solution to meeting the UK’s legally binding 2050 climate change targets."
The report also recommends for more research in order to reduce the ongoing cost of storing CO2.
Image: Illustration of carbon, capture and storage complex. Photo: courtesy of Energy Technologies Institute.
