Released October 25, 2010 | GALWAY, IRELAND
en
Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The U.K. has lost a key carbon capture and storage (CCS) project after German energy giant E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf) dropped its CCS development efforts at its Kingsnorth coal-fired plant in Kent.
E.ON has opted out of the government's billion-pound competition to win funding for a demonstration-scale CCS project and has announced that it will now focus its CCS development in the Netherlands, at its new Maasvlakte coal-fired plant in Rotterdam.
The move marks a surprise U-turn for E.ON, which in August awarded contracts to Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) (Clinton, New Jersey) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Incorporated (TYO:7011) (MHI) (Tokyo, Japan) to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for a post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and compression plant at the proposed 1,600-megawatt (MW) Kingsnorth plant. For additional information, see August 10, 2010, article - E.ON Green Lights Kingsnorth Carbon Capture Project.
"Having postponed Kingsnorth last year, it has become clear that the economic conditions are still not right for us to progress the project, and so, simply put, we have no power station on which to build a CCS demonstration," explained Dr Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK. "We therefore took the decision to withdraw from the Government's competition, because we cannot proceed within the competition timescales.
"As a group we still believe that carbon capture and storage is a vital technology in the fight against climate change and will now be concentrating our efforts on our Maasvlakte project in the Netherlands, as we believe the lessons from that project can be brought back to the U.K. for future generation CCS projects. We would obviously also wish ScottishPower well as they look to develop their own project at Longannet."
E.ON has faced significant opposition to its plans of replacing existing coal-fired units at the 1,940-MW Kingsnorth plant with two, high-efficiency 800-MW coal-fired units. As a result, and because of the global recession, the company pulled the plug on the project in October 2009, saying investment could be delayed by up to three years. For additional information, see October 12, 2009, article - E.ON Shelves £1.5 Billion Kingsnorth Coal-Fired Plant Replacement.
E.ON's departure leaves ScottishPower (Glasgow, Scotland) in pole position to win the government funding. In May last year, ScottishPower flicked the switch on the U.K's first CCS system to be installed at the Longannet coal-fired plant in Fife, on Scotland's east coast. It claimed the system can be scaled to the required 330-MW by the government's deadline of 2014.
There are other companies involved in the U.K. race for CSS funding. In July, Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland) announced plans to begin a large CCS demonstration project at the gas-fired power station in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. Earlier in March, the company secured £6.3 million ($9.9 million) in government funding to advance a 5-MW carbon-capture pilot at the Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire. For additional information, see related article from March 23, 2010 - Scottish and Southern Energy Wins Funding for U.K.'s Largest Carbon-Capture Pilot.
The newest energy company to toss its hat into the CCS ring has been clean energy provider B9 Coal (London, England), which in August revealed a 500-MW project at the coal-fired Lynemouth Power Plant in Northumberland. For additional information, see August 31, 2010, article - B9 Coal Enters U.K. Carbon Capture Competition.
View Plant Profile - 1041652 1078259 1040602 1058783
View Project Report - 75000121 78000531
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
E.ON has opted out of the government's billion-pound competition to win funding for a demonstration-scale CCS project and has announced that it will now focus its CCS development in the Netherlands, at its new Maasvlakte coal-fired plant in Rotterdam.
The move marks a surprise U-turn for E.ON, which in August awarded contracts to Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) (Clinton, New Jersey) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Incorporated (TYO:7011) (MHI) (Tokyo, Japan) to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for a post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and compression plant at the proposed 1,600-megawatt (MW) Kingsnorth plant. For additional information, see August 10, 2010, article - E.ON Green Lights Kingsnorth Carbon Capture Project.
"Having postponed Kingsnorth last year, it has become clear that the economic conditions are still not right for us to progress the project, and so, simply put, we have no power station on which to build a CCS demonstration," explained Dr Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK. "We therefore took the decision to withdraw from the Government's competition, because we cannot proceed within the competition timescales.
"As a group we still believe that carbon capture and storage is a vital technology in the fight against climate change and will now be concentrating our efforts on our Maasvlakte project in the Netherlands, as we believe the lessons from that project can be brought back to the U.K. for future generation CCS projects. We would obviously also wish ScottishPower well as they look to develop their own project at Longannet."
E.ON has faced significant opposition to its plans of replacing existing coal-fired units at the 1,940-MW Kingsnorth plant with two, high-efficiency 800-MW coal-fired units. As a result, and because of the global recession, the company pulled the plug on the project in October 2009, saying investment could be delayed by up to three years. For additional information, see October 12, 2009, article - E.ON Shelves £1.5 Billion Kingsnorth Coal-Fired Plant Replacement.
E.ON's departure leaves ScottishPower (Glasgow, Scotland) in pole position to win the government funding. In May last year, ScottishPower flicked the switch on the U.K's first CCS system to be installed at the Longannet coal-fired plant in Fife, on Scotland's east coast. It claimed the system can be scaled to the required 330-MW by the government's deadline of 2014.
There are other companies involved in the U.K. race for CSS funding. In July, Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland) announced plans to begin a large CCS demonstration project at the gas-fired power station in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. Earlier in March, the company secured £6.3 million ($9.9 million) in government funding to advance a 5-MW carbon-capture pilot at the Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire. For additional information, see related article from March 23, 2010 - Scottish and Southern Energy Wins Funding for U.K.'s Largest Carbon-Capture Pilot.
The newest energy company to toss its hat into the CCS ring has been clean energy provider B9 Coal (London, England), which in August revealed a 500-MW project at the coal-fired Lynemouth Power Plant in Northumberland. For additional information, see August 31, 2010, article - B9 Coal Enters U.K. Carbon Capture Competition.
View Plant Profile - 1041652 1078259 1040602 1058783
View Project Report - 75000121 78000531
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
