Re: Scottish Power to be a winner!

On May 2, 8:30 am, "Jeffrey Hamilton" <bberesf...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Highlander wrote:
SCOTLAND is on the cusp of leading the world in a revolution in energy
technology that could massively reduce carbon emissions and transform
the economy.
As previously revealed in The Scotsman, a document was unveiled
yesterday that showed the North Sea could be used to store unwanted
carbon dioxide (Co2) emissions from power stations for at least 200
years.

Academics suggested unwanted emissions from the UK and north west
Europe could be safely stored under the North Sea. There could be
potential to take up 2,000 years' of Scotland's unwanted Co2, they
said.

The research by Edinburgh University, sponsored by the Scottish
Government, could be the blueprint for an industry that may outstrip
oil and gas in importance to the future economy – and bring an
estimated 10,000 jobs, it was claimed yesterday.

The report found the potential capacity exists to store up to 46,000
million tonnes of Co2 in rocks beneath the Scottish waters of the
North Sea.

First Minister Alex Salmond, a long-term supporter of carbon capture
storage technology (CCS), hailed the report as "ground-breaking" and a
milestone in Scotland's future.

"The development of CCS in Scotland, including power stations and
storage networks, has the potential to support 10,000 jobs," he said.

Mr Salmond said that Scotland is well placed to lead the world in the
technology because of its geological assets – mainly former oil and
gas fields and an abundance of porous rock, known as saline aquifer.

He added that Scotland was helped by its expertise from the oil
industry, detailed knowledge of the North Sea and collection of
experts in the field.

He said: "Scotland can be a world leader in this technology of the
future."

Malcolm Ricketts, principal carbon analyst at energy consultancy Wood
Mackenzie, said the report showed Scotland has a huge commercial
potential in carbon capture.

"This has the opportunity to create a new offshore industry, with
Scotland benefiting in terms of knowledge and skills," he said.

"The key is to position the first trials on power plants, which will
help to develop a pipeline infrastructure for future CCS
developments."

However, a warning note was struck by some environmentalists that CCS
– also known as "clean coal" – is an unproven technology outside the
laboratory at industrial levels and could have a negative
environmental impact.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: "The First Minister proudly claims that
'Scotland is ready for carbon capture' but he forgets to add that
carbon capture isn't ready for us.

"Nowhere does he admit that carbon capture on this scale exists only
on the drawing board. It may make an important contribution one day,
but it's a disgrace that Scottish ministers have already given their
backing to new coal-fired power stations before carbon capture and
storage has been demonstrated anywhere in the world."

Liam McArthur, the Liberal Democrats' energy spokesman, warned: "It
remains that the best kind of emission is no emission at all.
Ministers must ensure that whatever potential Scotland has for
developing carbon capture does not come at the expense of investment
in clean, green, renewable energy."

Other groups welcomed Mr Salmond's statement yesterday. Friends of the
Earth Scotland and the World Wildlife Fund in Scotland both welcomed
the report as a major development in tackling a future environmental
disaster.

Duncan McLaren, Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive, said:
"The First Minister has today taken an important step forward in
heralding a move away from unabated coal power by supporting
technology to capture emissions."

But he went on to remind Mr Salmond that carbon capture is "only half
the equation" and appealed to the Scottish Government not to allow any
new coal-powered stations which do not include CCS technology.

And he endorsed ScottishPower's bid to have the first industrial
experimental site for carbon capture at Longannet power station in
Fife.

If successful in a UK government competition, ScottishPower believes
it can be up and running by 2014, and that the technology they develop
could then be attached to the 50,000 fossil fuel power stations around
the world.

Frank Mitchell, generation director at ScottishPower, said this
development in itself could make Scotland the centre of excellence for
the technology around the world.

Next stage – power firms fight it out for funding

THE next step in the development of technology to capture and store
carbon dioxide will be the result of a UK government competition for
funding.

Four power companies are competing for about £1 billion to pay for
carbon capture projects they hope to build in the UK.

ScottishPower is believed to be a front-runner with its plans to fit
carbon capture technology at Longannet Power Station in Fife.

Unlike its main rivals, ScottishPower would not need to build a new
power station but would fit the technology to the existing plant.

ScottishPower thinks that the project can be up and running by 2014
and hopes to start using the capacity within the North Sea to store
the waste .

It is important that the technology is proven and working by about
2025 or many coal-powered stations could have to close under EU
pollution rules.

The academics and companies behind carbon-capture research in Scotland
want further evaluation of storage in the North Sea and government
money for R&D.

Although some infrastructure is in place, in the form of pipes which
transported oil and gas from the North Sea, more will need to be built
at a cost of around £700 million to £1.67 billion.

Analysis - Professor Stuart Haszeldine

Country with technology and skills to cope with Co2

ELECTRICITY, cheaply and readily available, is at the core of our
lives. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, this is now taken
for granted.

Coal and gas have to be burned to produce more than 75 per cent of
that electricity in the UK – easy, quick, but very polluting of the
world's atmosphere and oceans. The carbon dioxide (Co2) created has to
go.

The UK is the first country to make Co2 reduction legally binding on a
government, and last week became the first to require new coal power
plant to fit carbon capture equipment.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) buys time. It allows industrial
countries to carry on burning fossil fuels in a much cleaner way.

Scotland can justifiably claim world-class advantages. Firstly, the
capture equipment has to be designed and built – Doosan Bab*** has
its world research base at Renfrew, and plans to provide 10 per cent
of new coal plant worldwide.

A willing and adaptable power industry is needed to build, and learn
to operate, the massive capture equipment. This can clean up existing
power plant (as with Longannet and ScottishPower), or can be applied
to newly built power plant (potentially at Peterhead with Scottish &
Southern, or at Hunterston with RWE).

High quality pipelines are required onshore and offshore, delivering
to injection terminals – this expertise is also well established
through decades of North Sea work.

Identifying and assessing a storage site, then injecting the , uses
the skills and expertise of hydrocarbon companies; monitoring the
stored during and after operations is the business of geophysical
contractors.

The Scottish government expects the creation of 10,000 new high-tech
green jobs when CCS becomes standard practice. Many of these will use
existing onshore and offshore skills and extend them.

Unique natural assets for Scotland are the storage sites. A power
plant can be re-built, or the can be transported, but the huge volumes
of rock to act as stores are fixed.

Our research shows clearly that Scotland has hundreds, probably
thousands, of years of storage capacity for its own needs – enough
capacity to offer storage to both England and north-west Europe.

Will this be safe? There is every reason is will be; there are dozens
of large natural accumulations of worldwide, some in the North Sea,
which have stored for tens of millions of years.

The geological requirements are well understood. Any storage site will
have to go through a rigorous licensing procedure, rather like for oil
and gas exploration and production.

The UK is very good at this, we have already produced our regulations
in law, ready to go. Monitoring of a storage site is explicitly
required, both during injection and for many years after site closure.

• Stuart Haszeldine is professor of sedimentary geology at the
University of Edinburgh.

That was an interesting post, Highlander. I hope if Scotland or any other
country funds the research and developement, they make sure they *own* the
technology and then *they* lease it out.

  cheers....Jeff

Better still, as you probably already know, the Scots have perfected a
system for getting out all the oil from a deposit and will be able to
sell or licence the technique to other countries,
.

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