Η Ένωση Εταιρειών Ηλεκτρικής Ενέργειας στην Ευρώπη EURELECTRIC υπέρ των τεχνολογιών CCS

[για μετάφραση, αν απαιτείται, κλικ στην ελληνική σημαία στην πλαϊνή στήλη]

“We are happy to see EU-level efforts being put into advancing the development of important low-carbon power technologies. This aid package, alongside funds earmarked from auctioning revenues under the Emissions Trading Scheme, is necessary to enable public-private risk-sharing, so that a number of large-scale demonstration projects can kick off,” said EURELECTRIC’s Energy Policy & Generation Committee Chair David Porter on 11 December, in response to the publication by the European Commission of the lists of carbon capture & storage and offshore wind projects to be funded under the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR). The lists have received the approval of the member states and passed scrutiny at the European Parliament. The Commission will now negotiate with project consortia in order to sign the grant contracts as soon as possible.

The European Commission has confirmed the lists of projects chosen in two out of three sections -carbon capture and storage (CCS) and offshore wind power - of the EEPR. The gas & electricity interconnection list, which has not been approved yet, is expected to be agreed within the Commission later this month and then passed on to member states and Parliament for final scrutiny.

The six CCS projects to receive EU funds will demonstrate, in commercial large-scale power stations, each of the three capture technologies now available, coupled with two different storage options. At Jaenschwalde (Germany, Vattenfall Europe) and Compostilla (Spain, Endesa) oxy-fuel technology will be explored; at Porto Tolle (Italy, Enel), Rotterdam (Netherlands, joint E.On/Electrabel project) and Belchatow (Poland, PGE) post-combustion technology will be investigated; the sole pre-combustion plant funded by EEPR is the Hatfield Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (Powerfuel) in the U.K. As regards storage, three projects will use depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and three saline aquifers.
As for offshore wind, nine projects out of 29 applications will be funded. The projects - three testing wind-grid integration solution, and six researching new turbines, structures and components, plus optimisation of manufacturing capacities - will be carried out in the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions.

David Porter welcomed the financing decision as being “a very important one for the power industry, as we need a range of technologies to deliver electricity which is low-carbon and reliable.” Integration of offshore wind systems should enable Europe to make more efficient use of available wind resources. CCS, which needs to be demonstrated on a large scale, could enable the electricity industry to go on using widely-available fossil fuels while also meeting the climate change agenda, he explained. Mr Porter underlined that lack of access to finance globally is the key obstacle to rapid CCS demonstration and stressed that therefore “sufficient and timely resources must be made available by the EU and the member states.”

For this reason, the European power industry once again emphasises the need to rapidly develop a transparent and simple mechanism for granting funds to CCS and innovative renewable energy projects from the 300 million allowances set aside in the New Entrants Reserve (NER) of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. “Speed is crucial if we want to see large-scale demo plants in operation by 2015. The NER-based programme must be EU-coordinated and funds dispatched centrally”, stressed Mr Porter, underlining that “after demonstration, the CO2 price must be the driver for CCS investment.”