Shell and SSE Move Ahead with Carbon Capture

Peterhead is another step closer to becoming the carbon-capture capital of the world after the welcome announcement this week that they will receive millions of pounds from the UK Government progressing it to the engineering design phase.

In fact, the Peterhead Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) project, creating the very first plant of its kind, is one of the EU’s largest commercially sized projects, and represents the very first gas CCS project.

The home-grown engineering expertise and industrial knowledge of the North-east has been recognised by the Scottish Government with their support over the last 10 years for the carbon capture project. It promises a brighter and greener future for the area for years to come with unrivalled storage capacity in the North Sea – enough to store at least 50 years of annual CO2 emissions from the European Union.

The UK Government is finally recognising the carbon capture potential in the North-east, as they are now supporting it with their £1 billion Carbon Capture Storage programme. Around £100m of this budget will go towards the detailed planning and engineering of the project, which could provide over 2000 jobs during construction, and clean electricity for over a million homes when it is built.

The project in Peterhead would create the world's first commercial-scale full chain CO2 capture, transportation and storage development. It would collect up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 emitted from Peterhead Power station over 10 years, and store it in the Shell-operated Goldeneye gas reservoir, 100km offshore.

This is a visionary opportunity for Scotland, harnessing the great resource that is the North Sea, and opening up the waterway as a global centre for the carbon storage industry, which in turn will bring investment and long-term growth to the region.

The move has been supported by WWF Scotland, whose director Lang Banks this week reportedly said that the project would enable those involved to test the technology and cut emissions from the energy sector, while the country is in the transition to an increasingly renewable future.

Testing CCS in Scotland is key, as the technology could be transported globally, making Peterhead the blueprint for other countries to follow. For the good of future generations, we want to make the most of the rich renewable energy sources present in Scotland, and make sure our fossil fuels are dealt with expertly and cleanly.

This has also been recognised by Shell which has praised the latest development as a hugely important step to making gas even cleaner than it already is.

CCS is also a welcome addition to reducing carbon emissions, while the global demand for energy continues to rise, and calls for action on climate change fill column inches. This project would help Scotland meet the target to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.

And it can only boost the North Sea oil and gas industry and help to secure its commercial viability for the future.

The project in Peterhead will be a world first, as there are currently no gas-based carbon capture and storage projects in existence. As nuclear remains an unknown quantity in terms of commercial success, cost and safety concerns, carbon capture could illuminate the future, and create sustainable economic growth for decades to come.

This is especially welcome as the UK government have taken their time to recognise the vast potential for carbon capture in the North-east, something which the Scottish Government has done for the past decade, and is keen to harness for the good of all those in Scotland.