The competition, called the CCS Commercialisation Programme, is part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s CCS Roadmap. It is intended to provide £1bn capital funding to support design, construction and operation of commercial scale CCS.
The program aims for safe removal and storage of harmful carbon emissions from coal and gas plants.
The four projects have been selected from eight bids, after evaluating them on the basis of project deliverability, value for money and the government’s schedule to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry in the 2020s.
The shortlisted projects will now take part in commercial negotiations with the government, and a decision on the support of the projects will be taken by the end of 2012.
Department of Energy and Climate Change secretary Edward Davey said, "The projects we have chosen to take forward have all shown that they have the potential to kick-start the creation of a new CCS industry in the UK, but further discussions are needed to ensure we deliver value-for-money for taxpayers."
Captain Clean Energy Project is a 570MW coal integrated gasification combined cycle (pre-combustion) project. To be located in Grangemouth, Scotland, the project proposes to have storage in offshore depleted gas fields.
The 340MW Peterhead post-combustion capture will be part of the existing 1,180MW combined cycle gas turbine power station at Peterhead, Scotland.
Teesside Low Carbon Project is a pre-combustion coal gasification project on Teesside in North East England. It will have storage in depleted oil field and saline aquifer.
The oxyfuel capture White Rose Project is being planned to be developed at the new 304MW supercritical coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire.
