More than £20 million was ploughed into Longannet’s ill-fated carbon capture programme, ScottishPower has revealed.
On Wednesday, UK energy secretary Chris Huhne announced the Fife power station had missed out on a £1 billion investment that would have resulted in years of research at the site turned into a pioneering carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant creating thousands of jobs and putting the region at the forefront of clean coal technology.
Mr Huhne said the Longannet scheme had been dropped by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) because of technical problems.
The technology honed at the Kincardine power station will now be used elsewhere, and Peterhead which missed out on funding four years ago is believed to be in the frame.
More than 400 experts in the fields of offshore and pipeline engineering and planning spent four years studying the viability of developing CCS on a commercial scale at Longannet.
ScottishPower described the project as ”the most detailed and comprehensive design of a commercial-scale end-to-end CCS project ever conducted in the UK or Europe.”
A company spokesman added: ”This project has significantly increased the UK’s expertise in CCS and will help us to compete internationally as a leader in CCS technology.
”The consortium completed the research on time and on budget.”
Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex MP was scathing in his criticism of the Government.
He said: ”It is a huge concern that the Prime Minister claims Longannet isn’t working and utterly perplexing that he could not come to agreement with the energy company to make this work.
”Longannet would test a potentially revolutionary technology that could help not just Scotland, but the whole of western Europe, meet climate emissions targets while maintaining a balanced energy mix.
”It is a crying shame this is not to be at Longannet, but this is not the end of the road for seeing commercial trials of the technology in Scotland.
”The move highlights the dead hand of the Treasury in scuppering moves towards a greener energy mix.
”It risks losing our competitive advantage in developing carbon capture engineering expertise and valuable skills that we could export around the globe.
”It is vital that this money is not recycled into the Treasury but used for carbon capture and storage projects. Without those guarantees the Government’s commitment to energy, the environment and green jobs will be increasingly viewed as all talk, no action.
”David Cameron is risking Scotland and the UK’s chance to lead the world in developing clean coal.”
Photo Andrew Milligan/PA Wire