* 2 major CCS projects in Britain at risk
* Comes ahead of global climate talks in Paris next week
(Adds comments by Capture Power, Shell)
By Susanna Twidale
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Britain has scrapped plans to
spend up to 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) to help
commercialise the technology for capturing carbon dioxide
emissions from power plants and storing them underground, the
government said on Wednesday, putting two major projects at risk
of being cancelled.
The announcement comes just days before negotiators from
more than 190 countries are due to meet in Paris to thrash out a
global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for rising
temperatures.
"Following the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, HM Government
confirms that the 1 billion-pound ring-fenced capital budget for
the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Competition is no longer
available," the government said.
Britain has two potential large-scale CCS schemes, one being
developed at an existing gas-fired plant in Peterhead, Scotland,
by Shell RDSa.L and utility SSE SSE.L. .
A second, White Rose, is being worked on at the UK's biggest
coal-fired power station by the plant operator Drax DRX.L and
engineering consortium Capture Power, which includes GE GE.N
and BOC, part of the Linde Group LING.DE .
"It is too early to make any definitive decisions about the
future of the White Rose CCS Project. However, it is difficult
to imagine its continuation in the absence of crucial government
support," Leigh Hackett, CEO of Capture Power, said in a
statement.
Drax said in September it would not invest further in the
project once the feasibility study is completed.
ID:nL5N11V0G7 ]
Shell and SSE both said in separate statements the decision
was disappointing and represented a missed opportunity for the
country.
"Without that funding, we no longer see a future for the
Peterhead project in the near term," a spokesman for Shell said.
The International Energy Agency said CCS could contribute
one sixth of the global emission reductions scientists say are
needed by 2050 to stave off the worst effects of climate change
such as drought, sea level rises and flooding.
Britain had previously viewed CCS as a vital tool to help it
meet its legally binding target to cut emissions by 80 percent
on 1990 levels by 2050.
But so far CCS has failed to live up to early hopes of its
widespread adoption. After many years of research Canadian
utility Saskatchewan Power SSPOW.UL opened the world's first
coal-fired power plant retrofitted with CCS last year, but
European utilities have struggled.
($1 = 0.6629 pounds)