Green Groups Say Ayrshire Power Proposal has some Serious Errors

According to green groups, the Ayrshire Power’s proposal to build a £3 billion carbon capture plant contains some very serious errors. The power firm is hoping to build the UK’s very first new coal fired power station. The goal is to have this station equipped with carbon capture technology.

Environmentalists are claiming that the mistakes in Ayrshire Power’s proposal to build this 1,800MW coal fired plant close to Hunterston nuclear power station raises significant questions about the credibility of its plans. Ayrshire Power, which is solely owned by the Manchester-based property and airport firm Peel Holdings, claims that 25 percent of the new plant’s CO2 emissions will be caught by its carbon capture and storage equipment.

The very first power station application is to be made in Britain under tight new UK and Scottish government climate change regulations. It then goes on to set its goal to have nearly all of the CO2, or about 90 percent, captured by carbon capture and storage within five years of the technology being proven.

However, the director of WWF Scotland, Dr Richard Dixon, said that his analysis of the planning application suggests that Hunterston would only initially capture up to 22 percent of its carbon emissions. He went on to say that the documents were very surprising sloppy. He even suggested that the Ayrshire Power’s application was now less credible after Dong, the Danish energy company, withdrew from Hunterson consortium last year.

Although Peel Holdings owns wind farms and 24 percent of the mining company UK coal it has never built a power station. It also continues to use the designs for Hunterston, which was developed by Dong. Dixon said, thus, the companies technical credibility has gone right out the window.