The power and gas company E.ON UK has submitted environmental scoping reports outlining the company's plans for a carbon dioxide pipeline for its proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station.
The plans form part of the companyÔÇÖs vision for its Kingsnorth plant to be the ÔÇ£gatewayÔÇØ to carbon capture and storage (CCS) development in the UK.
The proposed pipeline route heads north from the power station to the coast, from where it will run across the Hoo Peninsula before being placed in a trench on the seabed. It will then run out to depleted North Sea gas fields earmarked for storage.
According to E.ON, the pipeline would have sufficient capacity to allow a future ÔÇÿThames ClusterÔÇÖ of CCS projects to be developed, transporting 24 million tonnes of CO2 each year to storage sites under the North SeaÔÇöequivalent to two 1,600 megawatt Kingsnorth-type power plants and three smaller 500 megawatt combined heat and power plants.
The scoping reports outline the steps the company will take towards developing final plans for the pipeline. Final proposals will be submitted to the local council as part of E.ONÔÇÖs full planning application towards the end of this year.
Ed Walker, E.ON's project development manager, said: "We believe that our plans for Kingsnorth represent the best opportunity to provide industrial scale evidence of the viability of CCS and the crucial role it could play in meeting the UK's future energy needs. Today's announcement is the next stage of this continuing process.
"As we have done at every stage, we'll be working closely with local communities across the Hoo Peninsula to update them on our plans and to take their views on board."
He concluded: "Far from being just about one project, we believe that Kingsnorth has an exciting role to play as a gateway to unlocking the South East energy industry's potential to decarbonise, something that will become increasingly important as we make the move to a low carbon future.ÔÇØ
E.ON's Kingsnorth plant is its entry for the UK government's CCS competition. The competitionÔÇÖs prize is an undetermined sum of UK public money to support construction of a demonstration plant on a modest commercial scale.
The other remaining group in the competition is a consortium led by ScottishPower, a unit of Spain's Iberdrola, whose members also include Shell UK and National Grid.
