In an announcement late last week, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Edward Milib and proposed sweeping changes that would see the construction of any new coal based power stations require a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) component from the outset.
CCS in relation to coal is a controversial issue – the suite of “clean coal” and “new generation coal” technologies is yet to be proven over the long term at scale in real world conditions, it’s expensive and the extra energy required to provide capture mechanisms means that even more coal must be mined.
With many existing coal fire stations reaching the end of their productive life, this new legislation could not only help reduce emissions but perhaps discourage investment in coal fired power generation, diverting it to renewable energy technologies such as wind power.
Under new laws, the emissions of at least 300 MW of net capacity or around 400 MW of gross output of any new coal fired power station will need to be captured and stored as a condition of any consent. Furthermore, conventional coal-fired power generation should only be built on the expectation that it will be retro-fitted with CCS to cover 100% of emissions by the early 2020s.
While coal will likely remain part of the UK energy mix for some time to come, in the last five years Britain has tripled renewable energy based electricity supplies. According to Mr.Miliband, the UK now has more offshore wind power than any country in the world and has also recently announced new support for offshore wind and additional financial support for the wind industry
