The £1 billion of funding allocated for the first carbon capture storage (CCS) demonstration project is still on the table, despite the money now being made available to “other infrastructure projects”, energy minister Charles Hendry has insisted.
A Commons debate last week on the subject also heard the minister admit that the coalition could not yet spell out what funds would be available for other schemes following the collapse of the project to develop CCS at Longannet.
Until the full details were known about the candidate schemes put forward for any new competition, and possible collaborative ventures confirmed, “we cannot set out exactly what the funding will be”, said Hendry.
He said some projects would have access to the European Union’s new entrant reserve fund, some would be more dependent on a predictable income stream through the new contracts for difference regime and some would require “more upfront funding”.
While now reallocated for the current spending period, Hendry insisted that the original £1 billion would “remain available” and was “ring-fenced”. He promised further information on the second competition “this month” and pledged it would have a “tight timescale”.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 27 January 2012.
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