5 January 2009
CCSA Becomes Founding Member of GCCSI
The CCSA has become a Founding Member of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. The Association has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Government, saying that it will support the GCCSI in fostering a global portfolio of CCS demonstration projects. The creation of the GCCSI was announced on the 19th September last year, with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledging $100 million per year to facilitate CCS demonstration projects as well as identifying further research as necessary. Other Founding Members include Alstom, Shell, Rio Tinto, Mitsubishi Corporation, Schlumberger, Anglo American, Xstrata Coal and the Climate Group. The UK, Norway and South Korea have also all recently announced membership.

22 December 2008
CBI Releases Report on the Future of Coal
The CBI has today released a policy paper – The future of coal: securing electricity supply and clean coal technology. The paper describes CCS as vital if coal is to have a long term future and states that more support is needed to commercialise CCS by 2020. According to the paper, the UK could become a world leader in CCS technology and see significant benefits from the industry. However it also says that more than one demonstration project is needed to see this reward and that the UK government should consider financial support for additional UK-based demonstration projects. Investment in these projects, it says, should be sanctioned in 2009 with construction beginning in 2010. View the full story and the report.

20 December 2008
UK Joins GCCSI

The UK has announced that it has joined the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, along with South Korea and Norway. The announcement was made at an international energy and oil ministers meeting held in London on 19 December to discuss oil price volatility. The important potential of CCS to reduce CO2 emissions was noted during the meeting. In advance of the meeting it was also announced that the UK and Canada have signed a joint statement on CCS, agreeing to share experience and information in order to develop and promote the technology.

Read the DECC press release. View the full GCCSI story and the Canada-UK Joint Statement story.

17 December 2008
European Parliament Approves CCS Directive and Funding

The EU Climate and Energy package was today given the green light as the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of all the Directives. This included the CCS Directive, which saw no further changes with 623 votes in favour, 68 against and 22 abstentions. The Parliament also agreed funding of 300 million allowances under the EU ETS would to support the EU CCS demonstration projects. View the full story. The adopted text is available here.

12 December 2008
EU Council Agrees Funding for CCS

EU leaders have today agreed a deal to provide support for the construction of CCS demonstration projects. Following the latest meetings in Europe, the final decision from the EU Council states a figure of 300 million allowances to fund the EU’s 10-12 CCS projects. This figure is an increase from the Council’s draft conclusions to allocate 200 million allowances, which prompted immense pressure from CCS Directive rapporteur Chris Davies, as well as the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for the Council to improve its position. The final vote on the 300 million allowances takes place at the next plenary session on the 17th December, as part of the wider vote on the entire EU Climate and Energy Package.
View the conclusions from the EU Council. View the DECC press notice.

11 December 2008
Poznan – Still no Agreement on CCS in CDM

Members of the UN Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), meeting at the UNFCCC conference in Poznan this week (COP 14), could not reach agreement to include CCS in the Clean Development Mechanism. Further decisions on the involvement of CCS in CDM will therefore be delayed until the UNFCCC COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen taking place next year. View the full story.

10 December 2008
Policy Exchange Releases Report on UK Energy Policy

The think tank Policy Exchange has today released a report entitled ‘Credible energy policy – Meeting the challenges of security of supply and climate change’. The report discusses the pressing need in the UK for energy policy that addresses both security of supply in the UK and meeting climate change objectives. In relation to CCS the report specifically recommends that the Renewables Obligation should be transformed into a Low Carbon Obligation that includes nuclear power and CCS, as well as renewables. Read the
full report. The Association welcomed the report with the following press release.

10 December 2008
RWE NPower Announces Joint Venture Entry into UK CCS Competition

CCSA member RWE npower has today announced that it has formed a joint venture partnership with Peel Holdings and Dong Energy to develop a CCS demonstration project as part of the UK CCS competition. If successful in the competition, the project would comprise a 400 MW post-combustion capture facility (as part of a new supercritical coal fired power station) with storage in disused gas fields in the North Sea. View the press release.

10 December 2008
Ed Miliband Speech Recognises Importance of CCS

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, yesterday described the development of CCS as essential, not just for the UK, but also for the world as a whole. The remark was made as part of a speech at Imperial College entitled ‘The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of a Department of Energy’. He said that proposals on moving towards a low carbon path, including driving CCS, would be published in the New Year. View the speech.

8 December 2008
Shell and Essent to Undertake CCS Feasibility Study

CCSA member Shell has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dutch energy company Essent agreeing to undertake a feasibility study into a 1000 MW power plant with CCS in the Netherlands. The study will assess the possibility of combining a high efficiency gasifier (to convert both coal and solid biomass), a power generation plant and CCS equipment, as well as assessing the suitability of particular depleted oil and gas fields for CO2 storage. View the press release.

8 December 2008
Alstom and PGE Elektrownia Belchatow announce CCS project

CCSA member Alstom announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Polish power generators PGE Elektrownia Belchatow to develop and deploy CCS at the Belchatow power plant in Poland. The project will be carried out in two phases: Alstom will in the initial phase design and build a pilot capture plant (at an existing unit) to be operational in 2011. The second phase will see the two companies construct a larger CCS project expected to be operational in 2015. The project is said to be a candidate for taking part in the EU CCS Flagship Programme. View the press release.

1 December 2008
Shell Acquires Cansolv

CCSA member Shell announced today that they have acquired 100% of shares in Cansolv Technologies Inc. Cansolv offers technology to reduce air pollution, which includes capturing CO2 and scrubbing SO2 from gas streams. Their expertise in carbon capture will allow Shell to further explore and develop post-combustion capture technology. View the
press release.

1 December 2008
UKERC Publishes Report on Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy in the UK

The UK Energy Research Council has today published its report ‘Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy: What will it take for the UK?’ The report describes the need for decarbonisation of the electricity sector (through increasingly widespread deployment of coal with CCS, nuclear and wind power) as key to achieving large reductions in emissions. It also stresses that Government support is urgently required for demonstration and commercialisation of CCS and renewable technologies. View the full story.

1 December 2008
Committee on Climate Change Releases First Report to Government

The Committee on Climate Change has today released its report ‘Building a low-carbon economy – the UK’s contribution to tackling climate change’. It recommends the first three UK carbon budgets up to 2022, setting the UK on a path to reaching a target of 80% reductions in emissions by 2050. The report describes CCS as an “essential technology for reducing global emissions” and states that it must be developed rapidly.
View the report. The Association welcomed the report with the following press release.

24 November 2008
DNV Launches JIP for Qualifying CO2 Storage Sites

DNV has launched a joint industry project (JIP) to develop a standard method for characterising, selecting and qualifying both onshore and offshore CO2 storage sites. The outcomes of the JIP will provide guidance on establishing safe, permanent and cost-effective CO2 storage sites. The JIP is open to new participants until the end of the year. View the press release.

13 November 2008
EC launches Second Strategic Energy Review

The European Commission has today launched its Second Strategic Energy Review – Securing Our Energy Future. This energy package recommends a new strategy aimed at increasing energy solidarity between Member States and including stimulus for investment in low-carbon energy networks. Next steps include the development of a Roadmap towards a 2050 energy policy, as part of the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan, which includes a Communication on Financing Low Carbon Technologies, covering amongst others, ways to support up to 12 large scale CCS demonstrations plants.
View the Strategic Energy Review and associated documents.

12 November 2008
Australian Coal Association Launches CCS Website

The Australian Coal Association has today launched a new interactive website explaining CCS and the ongoing work of the coal industry to develop technologies that reduce carbon dioxide from coal. View the website www.newgencoal.com.au and press release

10 November 2008
ZEP Publishes Report on EU CCS Demonstration Programme

The European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) at their General Assembly, have today unveiled their proposals for the structure of the EU CCS Demonstration Programme. The report details plans that could accelerate the deployment of CCS in the EU by as much as 10 years, with the aim of achieving commercially viable CCS projects by 2020. The report makes detailed suggestions for a portfolio of CCS projects, covering the full range of CCS technologies and fuel sources as well as geography and geologies across the EU.
View the report and associated documents as well as the General Assembly welcome speech by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs

6 November 2008
New International Centre for CCS

A new international centre for CCS has today been announced by CCSA member Shell and the Government of Saskatchewan. Known as the International Performance Centre for Geological Storage of CO­2, or IPAC-CO2, it is located at the Canadian University of Regina and aims to help make Canada a world leader in the deployment and acceptance of CCS. More specifically, the centre will focus on a variety of issues such as assessing proposed CCS projects, increasing stakeholder and public awareness of CCS and networking internationally to promote research sharing. View the press release.

29-30 October 2008
CCS Financing Conference

The Association together with the Canadian High Commission organised a workshop on Carbon Capture and Storage at Canada House in Trafalgar Square.
View the presentations:
Wednesday 29 October
Neil Hirst (IEA)
Kevin Stringer (Natural Resources Canada)
Stuart Haszeldine(Edinburgh Uni)
Ian Bailey (Univeristy of Regina)
Sverre Aam (Sintef)
Bjorn-Erik Haugen (Gassnova)
Ian Hayhow (Natural Resources Canada)
Rachel Crisp (DECC)
Iain Wright (BP)
John Osborne (HTC Purenergy)
Stephen Kaufman (ICO2N)
Robyn Seeley (Shell)
Aoued Kaddour (StatoilHydro)
Thursday 30 October
Kevin Stringer (Natural Resources Canada)
Tone Skogen (Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum & Energy)
Bronwen Northmore (UK DECC)
Chris Mansfield (Shell)
James Watt (Amec)
Hans-Richard Hansen (Teekay Shipping)
Susan Cole (Enhance Canada)
Steve Wing (Well Engineering and Operations)
Ian Temperton (Climate Change Capital)
John Kessels (IEA Clean Coal Centre)

20 October 2008
IEA Launches CCS Report

The International Energy Agency today launched its new report 'Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage: A Key Carbon Abatement Option'. The report concludes that CCS could deliver cost effective emissions reductions, but this will not be achieved without the willingness of governments and industry to fund large-scale demonstration projects. The report covers, amongst others, a proposed roadmap for CCS to achieve significant emissions reductions, as well as progress on issues such as the legal and regulatory framework. At the launch of the report Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the IEA, said “The window of opportunity is closing for the global community to cost-effectively address climate change. CCS technologies must play a key role, but first they must be proven in the next decade.”
View the IEA website for further details and to purchase a copy of the report

16 October 2008
Ed Milliband Announces 80% Climate Change Target

In his first statement to the Commons as Secretary of State for the newly formed Department of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Milliband outlined the goals of the new Department stating that despite the economic downturn, the UK would not be retreating from climate change objectives. To emphasise this he announced an amendment to the Climate Change Bill to include an ambitious binding target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He also noted the importance of investment in CCS.
View the DECC press release and full Commons statement.
The Association welcomed the statement with the following press release.

3 October 2008
Government Reshuffle and New Department

The Prime Minster has today completed his reshuffle within Government and has simultaneously created a new Department for Energy & Climate Change, with Ed Miliband MP as the Secretary of State. Other appointments include Mike O'Brien MP and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath both as Ministers of State, Department for Energy & Climate Change and Joan Ruddock MP as Under Secretary of State, Deparment for Energy & Climate Change. View the full list of Cabinet Ministers and the BERR press release on the new department or view the website www.decc.gov.uk.

1 October 2008
Drax Signs Contract with Doosan Babcock for Biomass Co-Firing Systems

CCSA members Drax Power and Doosan Babcock have signed a £10 million Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the latter to supply biomass co-firing systems to all six coal-fired units at the 4GW Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. The installation is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009, and thereby - together with Drax’s existing co-firing capability of 500 MWe of electricity – making the co-firing facility the largest of its type in the world. View the website.

23 September 2008
RWE NPower Announces Completion of CO2 Capture Test Facilities at Didcot

CCSA member RWE npower has announced that new CO2 capture facilities at its Didcot power station will be completed in September 2008. The test facility will allow the company to evaluate the capture of CO2 from flue gases after coal combustion and from oxyfuel firing. In addition, the company said that plans to capture CO2 from a commercially operating plant at Aberthaw in South Wales will begin in 2009. View the full story.

16 September 2008
Scottish Power Investigates North Sea CO2 Storage Potential

A consortium led by CCSA member ScottishPower is investigating the possibility of utilising an aquifier under the North Sea identified as having the potential to store Europe entire CO2 emissions for the next 600 years. The consortium is developing the technical aspects of their CCS power station at Longannet, which was a successful pre-qualifier in the UK CCS Competition. View the full story and the
press release.

15 September 2008
CCS Financing Conference

The Association together with the World Energy Council organised a conference on "Carbon Capture and Storage Financing Challenges and Opportunities" kindly hosted by the City of London Corporation at Mansion House.
View the presentations:
Barbara McKee (WEC)
Anna Skarbek (Climate Change Capital)
Alastair Rennie (AMEC)
Christopher Mansfield (Shell)
Cliff Warman (Marsh)
Henry Derwent (IETA)
John Pothecary (RPS)
Eckhardt Rummler (E.ON) (9MB ppt)
Lewis Gillies (Hydrogen Energy)
Hardiv Situmeang (PT PLN)

11 September 2008
EC Launches Call for Tender to Establish CCS Project Network

The European Commission has launched a call for tender to establish and run a network of projects to demonstrate the use of CCS technology in power plants. The selection process should be complete by the beginning of 2009. View the press release.

4 September 2008
Doosan Babcock Gains Right to Use HTC Purenergy’s CCS technology

CCSA member Doosan Babcock Energy Ltd has secured the right to use HTC Purenergy Inc.’s carbon capture and storage technology. This agreement will allow it to participate in large projects both in Europe and the US. View the full story.

29 August 2008
RWE NPower Begins Construction of ’Capture-Ready’ Coal Power Plant in Hamm

RWE npower, a CCSA member, has commenced construction of a new 1,600 MW hard coal power plant in Hamm, Germany. The €2 billion plant is expected to be built ‘capture-ready’ with the potential to retro-fit for post-combustion capture and storage of CO¬2 from 2020. View the full story.

29 August 2008
German RWE Plans IGCC Plant With CCS in Huerth

CCSA member RWE npower plans to build a 450 MW IGCC plant with CCS in Huerth, Germany. It will be fuelled by locally sourced lignite with 90% of CO2 emissions being captured and stored in deep saline formations. The estimated cost of the plant is €2 billion, of which half has already been committed by RWE, and the plant is due to be commissioned by the end of 2014. View the full story.

27 August 2008
StatoilHydro to Start Full Scale CCS Operation in 2014

CCSA member StatoilHydro announced a new 280 MW power plant in Mongstad (currently a research centre), which will capture 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 every year when it begins full scale operation in 2014. View the full story.

20 August 2008
EPSRC Issues Calls on CCS

The Engineering and Physcial Sciences Research Council together with E.ON have today issued a call for multidisciplinary consortia looking into research to develop CCS related to power stations. A maximum of £5m will be available for this call and closing date for applications is the 6th November 2008. View the website for more information.

20 August 2008
MHI Signs Contract with Gassnova

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a CCSA member, has signed a contract to carry out the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies for Gassnova’s planned CCS plant in Norway. The facility is expected to capture 3,000 tonnes of CO2 from an existing 420 MW gas fired power plant in Kårstø. If the FEED study is considered to be qualified, MHI will then take part in the competition to construct the facility. View the full story.

18 August 2008
€40 Million Carbon Capture Research Programme Begins in Norway

Norway has launched a €40 million research and development programme, with the aim of developing more efficient and cost-effective chemical processes for capturing CO2 from process industry and fossil fuel fired power station emissions. SINTEF, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and CCSA member Aker Clean Coal have all signed up to collaborate on the programme, which will last eight years and operate under the name SOLVit. View the full story.

18 August 2008
Canada’s First Low Carbon IGCC Plant to Use Siemens Coal Gasification Technology

CCSA member Siemens coal gasification technology has been chosen for use in Canada’s first low carbon IGCC power plant. The 250MW plant, planned to be built in Genesee by EPCOR Power Generation is scheduled to come on line in 2015. It is designed to capture around 85% of its CO2 emissions for EOR. View the full story.

15 August 2008
US Department of Energy Announces CCS Funding

As part of its Clean Coal Power Initiative, the US Department of Energy has announced its third round of funding, which is expected to provide up to $340m to selected commercial scale CCS demonstration projects that will commence in 2009. These projects will be run by industry teams and recipients of funding will be required to provide half of the project costs. View the full story.

12 August 2008
US Department of Energy and SWP Begin CO2 Storage Project

The US Department of Energy and the Southwest Regional Partnership (SWP), which includes CCSA members ConocoPhillips, Schlumberger and Shell, have begun a six month demonstration project of injecting CO2 into a coalbed at the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. The project aims to recover methane whilst injecting over 31,000 tonnes of CO2. View the full story.

16 July 2008
US Proposes Rules on CO2 Storage

The Bush administration has set out proposals for new regulations governing the storage of CO2. The regulations, which are likely to be adopted in 2010 or 2011, aim to protect underground sources of water by measures such as extensive testing and site monitoring as well as investigating any CO2 migration and the requirement for sufficient funds to cover the cost of site care, closure and emergency response. View the full story.

10 July 2008
Western Australia Plans Centre for CCS

Plans for a new coal testing and education facility in Collie, Western Australia, are in development. The centre will look at the potential for CCS amongst other research into technologies that emit less greenhouse gases. View the full story.

9 July 2008
G8 Statement on CCS

At the G8 summit held 7-9 July in Hokkaido, Japan, the G8 leaders agreed to "support the launching of 20 large-scale CCS demonstration project globally by 2010". An agreement was also reached to "consider and adopt in the UNFCCC negotiations, the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050".
View the full statement and associated documents.

8 July 2008
Alberta Announces $4bn for Climate Measures

The Government of Alberta today announced a funding amount of $4bn towards their Climate Plan. This includes $2bn along in funding to develop CCS technology.

View the full story.

2 July 2008
IPPR Publishes report on the Future of Coal-Fired Power

The Institute for Public Policy Research have today released their report "After the Coal Rush: Assessing policy options for coal-fired electricity generation" which recommends that the EU should agree a timetable and financing for the goal of 12 CCS demonstration plants by 2015, as well as recommending that the UK should support a second CCS demonstration project and begin planning the infrastructure to transport carbon dioxide to storage in the North Sea.
View the full report and press release.

2 July 2008
Tony Blair Submits Climate Report to G8 Summit

Former Prime Minster Tony Blair published the first Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative report setting out the framework for a new global climate deal. On CCS, the report states that "It will be very challenging, if not impossible, to hit significant abatement targets without CCS".
View the full report.

30 June 2008
UK Government Launches CCS Consultation

The UK Government today launched their CCS regulatory consultation, covering the regulation of storage sites, capture-readiness and the EU CCS Directive. In addition, the shortlist of pre-qualified bidders for the CCS demonstration competition was also announced, with the winner expected to be named mid 2009.
View the CCS consultation and press release.
The Association welcomed the consultation with the following press release and Incentives position paper.
View the Association's full response to the consultation.

16 June 2008
Cameron Signals Strong Support for CCS

David Cameron today gave the strongest Conservative support for CCS in a speech to environmental leaders, announcing that a Conservative Government will implement a Californian model of an Emissions Performance Standard and utilise revenue from the auctioning of EU ETS allowances "to fund at lease three CCS demonstration projects over the next five to ten years".
Read the full speech.

11 June 2008
EU ETS Directive Draft Report Published

Avril Doyle MEP, the rapporteur for the proposed EU Directive to improve and extend the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, has today published her report on the Directive, which will be submitted to other MEPs for consideration and voting later in the year. In her report, MEP Doyle has proposed various measures to incentivise CCS projects through the EU ETS mechanism. View the full report.

9 June 2008
New Blog on CCS Debates in Brussels

Mark Johnston of E3G has launched his new blog that will report on CCS debates in Brussels. The blog aims to open an effective, independent channel of communication that will reach those with interests in policy and legislation. View the
blog.

6 June 2008
IEA Calls for Investment in Clean Energy

The International Energy Agency has today published its report entitled ‘Now or never: IEA energy technology perspectives’, warning that business-as-usual scenarios will result in CO2 emissions rising by 130% and oil demand increases of 70% by 2050. The report contains global roadmaps for development and deployment of key energy technologies in order to either see current emissions levels in 2050 or to achieve 50% reductions on current levels by 2050. The report estimates that on average 35 coal and 20 gas-fired power stations with CCS would be needed every year between 2010 and 2050 amongst other technologies that are all essential to reach the emissions targets. View the press release.

6 June 2008
Yorkshire Forward Published Report on CCS Network

CCSA Member Yorkshire Forward together with several other CCSA members have today released a report concuding the study on how a CCS network for the Yorkshire and Humber region can be developed. The region is home to a number of the UK's largest power stations and, once complete, could store up to 60 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the regions fossil fuel power plants.
View the full report and press release.

5 June 2008
EU CCS Directive Draft Report Published

Chris Davies MEP, the rapporteur for the proposed EU Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide, has today published his report on the Directive, where he calls for all existing fossil fuel power plants to be fitted with CCS by 2025 as well as proposing that no new power plants should be built after 2015 that are unable to reduce at least 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions. It is expected that the report will achieve first reading adoption in the plenary debate in September. View the full report.
Chris Davies held a press conference on the 6th May setting out his top priorities for the report and the Association responded with the following press release.

28 May 2008
GE and Schlumberger Sign Carbon Sequestration Alliance

CCSA members GE Energy and Schlumberger have signed an alliance agreement to accelerate the commercial development and deployment of ‘cleaner coal’ technology. The agreement brings together GE’s expertise with IGCC technology and Schlumberger’s expertise on CO2 Storage. GE stated that “Under this new arrangement, our companies will align the technical needs of capture and storage for high operability and work in concert to offer customers a cost effective solution that will provide a complete answer for IGCC with CCS that can be readily implemented under the proper regulatory framework.” View the
press release.

18 May 2008
New Website on CCS Regulation in EU and China

The STRACO2 Consortium have today launched their new Project Website, providing a communication platform for their project on CCS Regulation in EU and China.
View the website http://www.euchina-ccs.org.

15 May 2008
Shell Joins IEA’s Canadian CCS project

CCSA member Shell has joined several other companies in sponsoring the IEA CCS research project in Canada. The $80 million Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project is in its final phase of investigating the long-term storage of CO2 in mature oil reservoirs. Mr Collyer, President of Shell Canada commented that “This research will further understanding about the safety and effectiveness of long-term underground storage of CO2 and enable the public and regulatory agencies to make informed choices.” View the full story and press release.

6-7 May 2008
DOE Commits Significant Funds for CCS

The US Department of Energy has announced large amounts of funds towards CCS as part of its Regional Sequestration Partnerships and FutureGen Clean Coal Projects. Under its Regional Sequestration Partnerships, $126.6 million has been awarded to the West Coast Regional Sequestration Partnership and the Midwest Regional Sequestration Partnership for the fifth and sixth of seven awards for projects that will test the storage of carbon dioxide. Under the restructured FutureGen project, the DOE has allocated $1.3 billion towards multiple coal-fired power plants with CCS, with projects expected to be selected by December. View the DOE carbon sequestration page, Regional Sequestration Partnership press release, and FutureGen article.

5 May 2008
ExxonMobil Plans to Build CCS Demonstration Plant
The oil company ExxonMobil has today announced a commitment of more than $100 million (£50 million) towards a CCS demonstration project that will remove carbon dioxide from natural gas. The project, to be based in Wyoming, will use a technology entitled Controlled Freeze Zone (CFZ), which freezes and then melts the carbon dioxide, thereby removing other unwanted components as well. The plant is expected to being operation in 2009. View the full press release.

1 May 2008
Scotland Introduces Consent Motion on CCS Regulation
The Scottish Government has today introduced a Legislative Consent Motion to allow a common regulatory framework for CCS to be introduced across the UK. A Memorandum of Understanding will be developed between the UK Government and the Scottish Government to implement the common framework and a consultation on a licensing regime is expected in the summer. View the full press release.

23 April 2008
British-Norwegian Workshop on CCS
A workshop on The Business Case for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) was today held at the offices of Deutsche Bank in London. Co-supported by the Association, this successful event was a joint British-Norwegian effort, covering a wide range of issues such as financing CCS, comparing technologies and building the CO2 value chain. The keynote address was given by Michael Jacobs, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. View the webcast from the Royal Norwegian Embassy.
View the presentations and summaries from the day:
Agenda
Opening Address (K.H.Norve - Innovation Norway)
Ross Jobber (Deutsche Bank)
Tony White (Climate Change Capital)
Colin Scoins (E.ON)
Oscar Graff (Aker CleanCarbon)
Leif Dons (Sargas)
Alastair Rennie (AMEC)
Olav Kaarstad (StatoilHydro)
Nils Rokke (SINTEF)
CCSA summary
Innovation Norway summary
Speakers biographies

22 April 2008
Carbon Dioxide Injection Begins at Snohvit
CCSA member StatoilHydro today began carbon dioxide injection and storage at the Snohvit field outside Hammerfest, Norway. At full capacity, the project will store 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and represents the second large CCS project in Norway for StatoilHydro after the Sleipner project, which already stores 1million tonnes of CO2 per year. View the full news release.

15 April 2008
Alberta Plans Large CCS Project
A partnership between ARC Resources Ltd and the Alberta Research Council have today announced the start of research into a CCS plant that could store over 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. $1.8 million has been allocated to the research, which will cover 3 phases, the first of which is to investigate the geology of the Redwater reef northeast of Edmonton. View the full article.

11 April 2008
TransAlta and Alstom Agree joint work on CCS Project
An agreement has been signed between TransAlta Corp and Alstom (CCSA member) to develop a large scale CCS project in Alberta. The first phase of the project, will focus on advancing and improving the understanding of CCS technology, and will cost $12 million. Testing is expected to begin in 2012. View the full article.

3 April 2008
Defra Publishes Draft Marine Bill
Defra have today published the draft Marine Bill for consultation - which will close on the 26th June 2008. One of the key issues included in the Bill is the creation of a Marine Management Organisation (MMO) which may impact on CCS legislation. View the draft Marine Bill and associated documents.

2 April 2008
CO2CRC Launches CCS Project in Western Victoria
Australia today launched its first CCS project in Western Victoria as injection of carbon dioxide began at the CO2CRC Otway CCS facility. The project will inject 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide at a depth of 2km and is internationally recognised as a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) project. Project partners include various public and private organisations, with monitoring technology partly provided by the US Department of Energy. View the full CO2CRC press release and ABC News article.

1 April 2008
EU Framework Programme 6 European Research Area Network Publishes 1st Call for R&D
The FENCO-ERA NET Network, focussed on clean fossil energy, has today launched its first call for Proposals for Collaborative Research Projects on two themes relating to CCS. View the website for more information.

31 March 2008
E.ON Announces Entry into the UK's CCS Competition

CCSA member E.ON has today announced that it will be an entrant into the UK Government's CCS competition. This entry will be based on the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent, which is planned as two new, more efficient CCS-ready 800MW units. View the full press release.

20 March 2008
RWE Npower Announces CCS Project Partners

RWE npower (a CCSA member) has today announced a partnership with five companies to build its proposed 1MW CCS demonstration project in Wales by 2010, scaling up to a demonstration project of at 100MW as part of a cleaner coal power station at Tilbury. The project partners include BOC, Cansolv Technologies Inc, IM Skaugen, The Shaw Group and Tullow Oil plc, and form part of the proposal for RWE npower's entry into the UK Government's competition to build the first CCS demonstration plant in the UK. View the full press release.

19 March 2008
BERR Co-Sponsors CO2 Storage Database

BERR and the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D programme have co-sponsored a Features, Events and Process (FEP) database on geological CO2 storage. The database aims to provide a central source of information and to support the long-term safety and performance assessments of such storage. View the full story.

12 March 2008
CCS in UK Budget 2008

The Chancellor has today delivered his first Budget to Government. Chapter 6: An Environmentally Sustainable World gives details of how the domestic Environmental Transformation Fund will be allocated. This contains an allocation to “renewable energy and low-carbon technologies (at least £200m)” which includes CCS. The chapter also states that “BERR will shortly announce a new call for expressions of interest under the Environmental Transformation Fund to support the development of component parts of CCS.” View the full report and press notices.

27 February 2008
Canada Announces CCS Funding in Budget

Canada has announced funding for CCS as part of the Canadian Budget 2008. This includes $240 million for Saskatchewan’s proposed full, commercial scale CCS demonstration project at a coal-fired power station. The province has agreed to share the results of this demonstration with the Canadian Government, other provinces and industry. The Canadian Budget also provides $5 million for geological research into potential storage sites in Nova Scotia and $5 million to the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary to carry out work on the regulatory, economic and technical issues surrounding CCS. View the Budget.

21 February 2008
ZEP Writes CCS letter to EU Commission

The European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) has written to the EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs confirming their belief that a network of CCS demonstration projects in the EU is essential to ensuring that CCS is commercially viable by 2020. The letter also expresses support for the policy direction given by the EC on CCS and states that the companies represented by ZEP are ready to increase investment in CCS provided that appropriate legal and financial frameworks are developed to stimulate deployment of these commercial scale demonstration projects. View the letter.

18 February 2008
Alberta to have widespread CCS by 2015

Alberta’s Environment Ministry expects to see widespread commercial use of CCS in the province by 2015 as a means of addressing the rising emissions due to Alberta’s expanding oil sands industry. Alberta’s plan, announced in January, to halve emissions by 2050 will be achieved largely through use of CCS, and the deployment of CCS in the region will therefore be needed by 2015. Alberta has also announced a CCS council to advise the government and liaise with industry in developing suitable policy and partnerships. View the full story.

30 January 2008
New Report on Business Opportunities in Climate Change

The EEF and Deloitte have today released a report on how climate change is creating billions of pounds in opportunities for manufacturing. The report "Delivering the low-carbon economy: business opportunities for UK manufacturers" estimates that the CCS business could be worth $40bn (£20bn) by 2030.
View the full report and press release.

23 January 2008
EU Commission Releases Energy & Climate Package

The EU Commission have today set out a package of legislative proposals, which will set the path towards an EU- wide cut in carbon dioxide emissions of 20% by 2020. The package covers proposals on a range or measures, including several Directives on; the extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the promotion of renewable energy and CO2 storage, as well as a communication on supporting early demonstration of sustainable fossil fuel power generation.
View the full Energy & Climate Package and associated documents.

10 January 2008
UK Government Publishes Energy Bill

Following the Energy Review 2006 and the publication of the Energy White Paper in 2007, the UK Government have today published their ambitious Energy Bill which, amongst other things, proposes primary legislation to create a regulatory framework for CCS.
View the Energy Bill and associated documents.
The Association welcomed the White Paper with the following press release (pdf)

January 2008
IEA Booklet on Safety of CO2 Storage

The International Energy Agency have published a booklet "Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide - Staying Safely Underground".
View the booklet (pdf)

2007

December 2007
CCSA Publishes Second Issue of "CCSA News"

The Association this month launches the second issue of "CCSA News", reflecting a busy time for CCS since the first issue was launched in May, including new project developments and progress on policy.
Download here (pdf)

17 December 2007
Total to Share CCS Project Data with Indonesia

CCSA member Total has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia, concerning the company’s CCS project in Lacq, France. Under the agreement Indonesia will have access to data that Total collects from the Lacq pilot project. View the full story.

12 December 2007
North Sea CO2 Transport and Storage Infrastructure Study Published

The North Sea Basin Task Force, comprising of individuals representing the Governments, public and private sectors of the UK and Norway, have today released the report on the work of the North Sea CO2 transport and storage infrastructure study. The study, which was commissioned in June 2006, was produced in association with Element Energy, Poyry Energy and the British Geological Survey.
View the full report.

29 November 2007
G8 Workshop backs Carbon Capture and Storage

A third G8/IEA/CSLF workshop on carbon capture and storage was held in Calgary on the 29th November. The workshop - attended by governments, industry, environmental NGOs and scientific representatives from over 15 countries - agreed a series of recommendations to enable early global deployment of CCS. These recommendations will be presented to the July 2008 meeting of G8 leaders in Japan.
The Association issued a joint press release with the Australian Coal Association and the World Coal Institute welcoming the recommendations. Read here (pdf)

26 November 2007
CBI Publishes New Climate Change Report

Concluding 10 months of work, the CBI Climate Change Task Force have today released the report "Climate Change: Everyone's Business", setting out priority areas for action to enable the UK to meeting carbon reduction targets. Measures include removing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants, through a greater use of CCS. View the full report.

22 November 2007
Major Science Report on Vital New Technologies

The Council for Science and Technology (CST) have today published the report "Strategic decision making for technology policy" highlighting six key new technologies that are central to the UK's future prosperity, the first of which is CCS.
VIew the full report.

19 November 2007
Prime Minister Launces UK CCS Competition

The Prime Minster, in his speech on climate change to WWF, today launched the UK Competition to build the first commercial CCS project "demonstrating the full chain of CO2 capture, transport and storage". It is estimated that a preferred bidder will be appointed in 2009.
More information and related documents here.

6 November 2007
Queens Speech Announces Forthcoming Energy Bill

The Queen today gave her annual speech to Parliament, setting out the Government's legislative agenda for the next year. Included in the speech is an announcement on the forthcoming Energy Bill, which will "create a regulatory frameork to enable private sector investment in CCS projects". View the Energy Bill brief and associated webpage.

5 November 2007
IPPR Publishes Research Reports on UK Emissions Target

Two new reports simultaneously published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) set out the possibility of the UK achieving an 80% cut in CO2 emissions by 2050 and what would be needed to achieve such a cut. The report 80% Challenge: Delivering a low-carbon UK, jointly written by the IPPR, WWF and RSPB looks at domestic measures to achieve the desired cut, including "switching to low-carbon technologies in the electricity sector...alongside a roll out of new Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies". View both reports here.

9 October 2007
Further Details on Government CCS Competition Announced

Alongside the Pre-Budget Report, which was released today, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform today announced further details on the UK Government's Competition to build a CCS plant in the UK (to be launched in November).
View the announcement as well as associated documents on the Competition.
The Association responded with the following press release (pdf)

28 September 2007
Yorkshire Cultivates Green Image

A study into Carbon Capture and Storage in Yorkshire has today been launched by CCSA member Yorkshire Forward. The largest study into CCS in the UK, the steering group consists of key partners BP, Shell, E.ON, Drax and Scottish and Southern Energy and brings together the three coal-fired power stations in the region, Drax, Ferrybridge and Eggborough. View the full article.

27 September 2007
New South Wales to Build CCS Plant

The state government of New South Wales have today announced a new $5 million carbon capture plant to be built on the central coast. The plant aims to pave the way for a much larger $150 million demonstration project, which could capture over 50,000 tonness of carbon dioxide per year.
View the full story.

30 August 2007
Government Publishes Coal Forum Report

The Government have today released a report on the work of the UK Coal Forum from November 2006 to June 2007. The report emphasises the importance of modern coal-fired power, with the ability to make a contribution to security of supply, competitiveness and sustainability. View the full report.

26 June 2007
Green light for CCS as OSPAR Approves Amendment

The last barrier to the storage of CO2 in the sub-seabed was today removed as 1992 OSPAR Convention to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic approved an amendment to allow "all forms of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in sub-seabed geological formations". The amendment was led by the UK, Norway and the Netherlands and follows a similar amendment to the London Convention, which came into force on 1st February 2007. View the full press release.

22 June 2007
Alstom and Statoil to Test new Capture Technology in Norway

CCSA members Alstom and Statoil have today signed a contract to test new chilled ammonia technology for CO2 capture designed by Alstom. The technology is particularly applicable for natural gas combined cycle power plants and will be tested as a 40MW facility at Statoil's Mongstad refinery in Norway. Initially, the facility will capture at least 80,000 tones of CO2 per year, with technological advances leading to development of a larger capture facility able to capture over 2 million tons of CO2 per year. View the full article.

June 2007
North Sea Basin Task Force Publishes First Report

The joint UK/Norway North Sea Basin Task Force, set up in November 2005 has published its first deliverable report on the issues surrounding transport and storage of CO2 under the North Sea. View the full report.

 

For earlier news stories, please visit the news archive here

 

2008 CCSA © | Last Updated: Dec 2008

homeAbout CCSAAbout CCSour membersnewsCCS ProjectsUseful Infocontact us

members area