Gas Plants Are Now Eligible for £9 Billion Carbon Capture Demonstration Program

It now seems that gas plants are now eligible for a program to store emissions rather than release them into the atmosphere. This was a program that was previously only open to coal plants. This announcement means that these gas plants will now be eligible for this £9 billion carbon capture demonstration program.

The energy and climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, will announce the new change this week. The program itself has only been open to coal plants. In fact, coal plants, in the future, will be required to fit the technology to capture and store emissions rather than release them into the atmosphere.

This move also follows a warning from the Committee on Climate Change that said the UK will miss its target to reduce emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The only way for the UK to hit this goal is for gas plants to be subject to the same new emission controls that coal plants are subject to.

Despite the fact that gas plants cannot take part in the program, Huhne will stop just shy of endorsing the committee’s other recommendation to fit all gas plants with the same carbon capture technology as the coal plants by 2020. He said that the new emissions controls will not apply to the gas plants in the short or medium term.

Huhne went on to say that the government is reasserting its mission to lead the world on carbon capture and storage. The UK looks set to rely on gas for years to come. The country won’t be able to take the carbon out of all gas plants overnight. However, the country does hope to support the process by investment in new technology.