UK Revives £1 Billion ContestTo Boost Carbon Capture Sector

The UK has re-launched a £1 billion ($1.6 billion) competition to promote the large-scale adoption of carbon-capture technology, an investment that government officials hope will make the UK a global leader in the emerging low-carbon energy sector. Launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the program will offer funding for the development of one or more plants capable of removing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants and storing them underground. While some call such carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology a potentially critical part of reducing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the sector remains unproven and costly at a large scale. Ed Davey, secretary of the DECC, predicted the sector could be worth £6.5 billion annually to the UK by the end of the 2020s and become operational at 12 to 20 large power plants, producing up to 30 gigawatts of power. An earlier CCS competition in the UK faltered when the final bidder withdrew because of disagreements over government funding.