Due to the rules there would be an increase in the construction of gas-fired power plants, which do not have to bury their carbon emissions.
Joan MacNaughton, senior vice president at Alstom and also a former senior energy advisor for the government, said: “We can’t do everything at once. That means fitting CCS technology to new coal plants is the priority as they produce more emissions. But we do have to do new gas plants pretty soon. Building more ‘unabated’ fossil fuel plants for years to come would just mean we have a much bigger problem to tackle later on.”
Previously in April 2009, Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy and climate change secretary, has revealed that the new coal-fired power plants would be outfitted with the CCS technology, in order to reduce the high carbon emissions rate caused due to coal-fired power plants for energy.
Power generation firms expect that they would have to install CCS technology to their gas plants. EDF Energy’s gas plant under construction at West Burton has been designed as “carbon capture ready” so equipment can be fitted later.
Coal-fired power plants are the most carbon-intensive ways to generate energy. The UK plans to reduce their carbon footprint by 80% by 2050. In order to reach the goal most of the power generation would have to come from coal or gas plants being installed with CCS or moving the country into complete dependence on renewable energy resources.
