The UK has set up a Carbon Capture and Storage Cost Reduction Task Force to ensure that CCS takes off in Britain and is competitive with other low carbon technologies.

The task force will advise the government on the steps needed to reduce the cost of CCS for what is hoped to be a new wave of projects, producing these recommendations in a report due to be published early next year.



Today, UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry announced that Dr Jeff Chapman has been appointed as chairman of the task force.

Chapman is chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, a body which represents the UK’s CCS industry.

He said: “CCS will be an essential and cost-effective technology solution in the mitigation of climate change. Similar to other low-carbon technologies, CCS will incur additional costs in the early years of deployment, but with good planning and optimisation it will be possible to drive down costs in a short timeframe. The sooner we set about this task the sooner we will get on track for cost-efficient decarbonisation of power and industry.”

CCS in the UK has had mixed fortunes in the last year: a demonstation plant opened at Ferrybridge in England but an intended flagship project at Longannet in Scotland was scrapped because the government could not agree on final plans with power companies.

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