Ayrshire Power Limited (APL), the company proposing to build a new multi-fuel power station with demonstration scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) capability at Hunterston, in Scotland, has announced details of an Addendum to its original application for consent to construct the facility that modifies some of its proposals..
Publication of the Addendum follows consultation with key stakeholders including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and others who requested some additional work to be carried out on sections of the application particularly in relation to air and marine emissions.
A period of public consultation on the Addendum will begin on 2nd August with interested parties required to lodge any comments with the Scottish Government by 29th August 2011. Public exhibitions will be held in the local area in Millport on Tuesday 23rd August and Largs on Wednesday 24th August.
Muir Miller, project director at Ayrshire Power, commented: “Given the nature and complexity of the proposed development, its location, unique geographical setting and particular meteorological conditions, we anticipated that SNH and SEPA might request some additional work on our proposals.
“Hunterston’s proximity to sensitive local centres of population and to sites of environmental significance means that it is particularly important that there is a high level of confidence in the emissions modelling work undertaken to assess the impact of the proposed development.
“SEPA and SNH requested some additional air emission modelling to provide improved confidence that these emissions would not lead to any unacceptable public health or environmental impacts.
“As a result of the revised air quality emissions modelling information a revised assessment of the impacts of the predicted emissions on various human and ecological interests has been prepared, including revisions to the health impact assessment.
“In addition, we were asked to undertake some additional work in relation to emissions of water from the proposed development to the Clyde to further assess the impacts of these emissions on the environment and various marine interests.”
As a result of the above work, modifications have been made to the design of the power station, the most significant of which are an increase in the height of the chimney from 155 to 200m and a change in the construction laydown area to accommodate the needs of the proposal by Scottish and Southern Energy to construct a National Offshore Wind Turbine Test Facility at Hunterston.
The change in chimney height arises from the revised air emissions modelling work and has been made to provide the required level of assurance that air emissions will not cause unacceptable public health or environmental impacts. Given the change in the chimney height the Visual Impact Assessment has also been revised and is reported in the Addendum.
APL’s proposals for a new 1852MWe power station with CCS were submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents and Deployment Unit in June 2010.
Since that time, the company has made considerable progress in key areas of the project. In December 2010, details were unveiled of the formation of a consortium to progress the CCS elements of the development with partners including carbon capture and power solutions provider Doosan Power Systems, engineering and construction company, Fluor Limited and Petrofac, a leading international provider of facilities solutions to the oil, gas and energy industries.
In May, APL announced that its bid for European Union (EU) funding support for the CCS elements of the project had successfully passed the first stage of the EU’s NER 300 demonstration CCS competition.
The bid was submitted to the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) by Peel Energy Carbon Capture and Storage Ltd (PECCS), a sister company within the Peel Group and an announcement on successful applicants is expected to be made in late 2012.
Muir Miller commented: “Publication of the addendum to our application is the latest stage in moving the Hunterston project forward and we look forward to outlining our plans in detail to interested parties at the forthcoming public exhibitions.
“We are totally committed to delivering a project which, together with other CCS initiatives, will take Scotland one step closer to becoming a world leader in pioneering this key technology.”
It is estimated that the proposed new plant at Hunterston could meet the electricity needs of up to 3 million homes. It would create a significant number of jobs in Scotland, including more than 100 professional engineering jobs in Renfrew, around 1,600 construction jobs in North Ayrshire at the peak of the construction phase and approximately 160 on an on-going basis once the plant is up and running. The new plant would require many hundreds of millions of pounds of CCS equipment, much of which could be procured in Scotland, representing a major opportunity for local suppliers.
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