Emissions reduction |
Zero Carbon Humber: what it could look like
In August, the Planning Inspectorate ‘accepted for examination’ Net Zero Teesside (NZT). This is a comprehensive project, described as “a full chain carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project”. It has two components, whose organisational structures differ.
One consortium, NZT Power, is focused on electricity generation with post-combustion carbon capture and it comprises BP, Eni, Equinor and Total, with BP leading as operator. It will be responsible for construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of a CCGT plant with a capacity of 850 MW when abated, and a carbon capture plant, plus cooling water, gas and electricity grid connections, etc.
The second partnership is centred around transport and disposal: a CO2
‘gathering
network’ that includes pipeline connections from industrial facilities on Teesside to transport captured CO2
; a CO2 plant and the onshore section of a CO2 compression export
pipeline. The consortium, NZNS Storage, comprises BP, Eni, Equinor, National Grid, Shell and Total, with BP leading as operator. NZNS Storage will also be responsible for an offshore export pipeline and injection into offshore storage, but offshore consents are handled by a separate body.
NZT was in fact the second CCS project accepted for examination by the Planning Inspectorate. The first accepted, in June 2021, was Keadby 3 – a combined cycle gas turbine power station whose development is being led by SSE Thermal and Equinor. The project, according to the application documents, comprises a CCGT unit with a capacity of up to 910 MW, carbon capture and compression plant, electrical, gas and cooling water connections. Keadby will be associated with Zero Carbon Humber (see above) and it will use the planned ZCH network to export the captured carbon dioxide. As a consequence the carbon dioxide export infrastructure will require separate development consent to be managed by the Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH) Partnership. The eventual geological store will be developed and consented by Northern Endurance Partnership. An alternative or nearer term option would see the Aldbrough gas storage facility
(commissioned in 2011, and currently representing 40% of UK gas storage) converted to store hydrogen. SSE is also preparing for hydrogen burning up to 20% in Keadby 2, now under construction, and has outlined proposals for a fully hydrogen-fuelled 1800 MW power plant, Keadby Hydrogen.
SSE is also the lead party on a further planned CCGT with CCS at Peterhead, which would be connected to the Acorn pipeline and offshore store. Peterhead is in Scotland, which has its own consenting process and Peterhead is at an earlier stage than Keadby. SSE began ‘stage 1’ consultations in March and will complete ‘stage 2’ consultations in October, which both precede any application for consent.
Development consent is, of course, just one element of an investable project and the government has only just opened consultations on business models and financial support for centralised CCS and carbon disposal projects. That suggests a timeline of at least two years until ‘final investment decisions’ can be taken on these three CCS projects.
Go small, go distributed? Green hydrogen and renewables Are electrolysis projects to produce green hydrogen entering the planning system alongside the blue hydrogen projects mentioned above? That is not so easy to determine. There are some projects visible. In April this year Scottish Power announced it had submitted a planning application for a 20 MW electrolyser able to produce up to 8 t of green hydrogen per day, which will be combined with 40 MW of solar and 50 MW of battery storage at its existing Whitelee wind farm. The project will be engineered and operated by BOC, and the 20 MW electrolyser will be delivered by ITM Power. The project aims to supply hydrogen to the commercial market before 2023.
Carlton Power subsidiary Trafford Green Hydrogen Ltd has applied for planning permission for a ‘low-carbon hydrogen fuel hub’ at the Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park. Hydrogen will be produced using electrolysis, with power from a 20 MW solar farm on the
18 | September 2021 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
site – a planning application is expected in the next few months – and from offsite renewable energy. The hydrogen will mainly be used for transport, which means it will benefit from the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). These two projects indicate the distributed nature of electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen and that raises interesting possibilities, because of a quirk in the consenting regime and the recent experience of new investors entering the UK power sector. Energy projects rated at over 50 MW are referred to government for energy consents and typically (but not exclusively) to the Planning Inspectorate for development consents as described above. Smaller projects are dealt with by planning bodies attached to local authorities and are connected to the local distribution network operator’s (DNO’s) low voltage network. This tends to make development consent for small projects faster, cheaper and more flexible.
Experience from gas generation is instructive here. When the capacity market was introduced in GB it was expected to underwrite new gas turbines. Instead, small fleets of distribution- connected gas engines entered the market, driving CM prices down because they could take advantage of the planning regime and be built
East May
Atlantic Pipeline
St. Fergus Inverness Peterhead Port Aberdeen
Feeder 10 Pipeline
Glasgow
Grangemouth Edinburgh
Miller Gas Pipeline
Goldeneye Pipeline
• Teesside • Humberside • Thames
• South Wales • The Netherlands • Norway
Teesside Above: Acorn carbon dioxide storage site
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
