RWE has announced plans to progress three new carbon capture projects in the UK, part of its strategy of developing decarbonisation solutions for its fleet of conventional generation plants in Europe.
The company is testing the feasibility of options to retrofit carbon capture technology at its existing combined cycle gas power stations at Pembroke and Staythorpe. It is also developing proposals for an 800 MW carbon-capture, gas-fired power station at Stallingborough, close to the Humber Estuary in NE England.
RWE considers carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be a viable solution for delivering decarbonised, reliable, and dispatchable power generation, while supporting the UK’s target of decarbonising its power system by 2035. The three proposed CCS projects will play a key part in helping RWE achieve its own global ambition to be carbon neutral by 2040 – targets aligned with the Paris Agreement.
If all three projects are progressed, they would collectively be capable of securing up to 4.7 GW of flexible, decarbonised generation capacity while capturing 11 million tonnes of CO2 per year, and would play a key role in helping decarbonise neighbouring industrial clusters.
All three projects are close to proposed CO2 networks or will have access to shipping facilities, which would enable the CO2 to be safely transported and stored by third parties. RWE has developed partnerships with industrial clusters South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) and Viking CCS in order to develop these transportation and storage options.
The projects are now preparing to apply to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Track 2 Phase 2 cluster sequencing funding application process, which is dedicated to carbon capture projects in close proximity to carbon capture storage or transport facilities. Success will enable RWE to demonstrate that carbon capture is a viable solution in the race to net zero.
Image courtesy of RWE
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