'Clean coal' on trial in Yorkshire

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) techniques will be tested over two years at Ferrybridge power station, near Castleford.

If the trial is successful it could lead to a massive roll-out of the technology, which involves the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions before they are released into the atmosphere and shipping or piping them to safe storage, most likely under the seabed.

The successful development will allow Britain to continue building coal-fired power stations without the headache of the pollution they cause.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced the funding for the plant's owners Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and two other companies to carry out the trial, which will test the capture of carbon emissions, rather than the storage.

It came as he named the Yorkshire region a low carbon economic area for CCS, an acknowledgment of how the area is leading the way. A further European Union-funded trial is already planned for Hatfield power station, near Doncaster.

If the technology is proven, regional development agency Yorkshire Forward wants to link all the major industrial polluters around the Humber to a pipeline which would transport their emissions to be stored deep under the North Sea, cutting the UK's entire CO2 emissions by 10 per cent.

The Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber, Rosie Winterton, said the announcement positioned the region "as a world leader in the development and production of the type of energy needed in a low-carbon economy and will mean more jobs and further investment in our region".

CCS has been used on a small scale in some countries, but is now seen as having the potential to slash environmentally-damaging carbon emissions from polluting coal power stations and other industrial plants being released into the atmosphere.

The Government is backing several trials to test whether the technology is proven to be used on such a large scale, and Yorkshire is at the forefront of its development because of the concentration of polluting plants in the region.

Ministers have already imposed a ban on the building of new coal-fired power stations unless they are partially fitted with CCS, and if the trials are successful existing plants could be required to fit CCS equipment as well.

Yesterday's series of announcements – which include the creation of an Office of CCS within the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and the release of an industrial strategy – comes as the Government seeks to speed up development amid criticism it has been taking too long.

Yorkshire Forward chief executive Tom Riordan said the status as a low carbon economic area would help the region apply for further funding for CCS trials, develop skills needed for the industry and support work with business and the Government to push the case for using the technology.

"We welcome the announcement which is a vote of confidence in Yorkshire and Humber's CCS capabilities," he said. "As a region we are ideally placed to become a world-renowned CCS location on the basis of the unique geographic and industrial assets, with the UK's largest cluster of industrial CO2 emissions with proximity to major CO2 stores.

"These assets leave us well placed to demonstrate and rapidly deploy CCS on a scale that can be matched by few others."

In total, the Government estimates there could be 100,000 jobs created by the development of CCS, and it could be worth billions to the economy.

The chief executive of SSE, Ian Marchant, said: "CCS could contribute significantly to meeting UK and EU climate change targets. The development of this technology needs to be a collaborative process."