CCS key to reduce costs and decarbonise the energy system

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key component to minimise the costs for consumers and businesses in the transition to low carbon energy. That’s the view of the Energy Technologies […]

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key component to minimise the costs for consumers and businesses in the transition to low carbon energy.

That’s the view of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which in a letter to Angus MacNeil MP, Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, explains the impact of delaying CCS market development in the UK.

Achieving 2050 carbon targets without deploying any CCS could result in costs to the country –  more than 2% of GDP by the same period across the energy system, it stated.

The cancellation of the ‘CCS Commercialisation Programme’ has a high chance of “significantly” increasing the cost of carbon abatement to the country’s economy in 10 years, it added.

The delay of CCS development will increase the need to roll out more renewables and new nuclear power, the ETI stated.

It suggests that to develop CCS the government needs “an attractive policy offer” to get private sector investment with clear rewards for first movers and those who deliver low carbon energy cost effectively.

The ETI added: “A strategic approach could also minimise cost and risk during the early stage of CCS development by paying close attention to the location and design of the first project. Selecting and scoping the right early projects can maximise early cost reductions so helping to build confidence in the emerging sector and in the firmness of policy support.”

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