Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what progress he has made on development and use of carbon capture and storage systems since 2010; and when he expects the first use of such a system in a UK power station.

The first commercial scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plants in the UK are being brought forward through the Government’s CCS Commercialisation Programme, which was launched in 2012. The Government has set aside £1 billion to support the first CCS projects in the UK, and is investing around £100m now to take two innovative projects forward into the detailed engineering and design stage known as FEED (Front End Engineering and Design).

FEED studies for the White Rose project in Yorkshire and Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire are progressing well. The companies involved are anticipated to take investment decisions in late 2015, with Government taking decisions shortly after. We expect projects to begin construction and then operation as soon as possible after investment decisions have been taken, and the necessary consents and financing are in place.