The British government and the energetic Italian of ENI announced on Thursday the “financial block” of a mega project in the northwest of England aimed at transporting and then burying millions of tons of CO2 in the Irish sea every year. “The financial closure allows the project (…) Go to the construction phase,” welcome in a joint press release with the government, which does not specify the details of the investment.
The United Kingdom had announced an investment of 22 billion pounds (25.7 billion euros) for 25 years to develop carbon capture and storage centers, in two old industrial areas in northern England. The country “launches a new clean energy industry” that “will create thousands of jobs” and “revitalizes the industrial communities” of the country, says the Minister of Energy Ed Miliband.
A complex and expensive solution that is not unanimous
The project launched on Thursday will send the CO2 issued by factories in the northwest of England and northern Wales to old natural gas tanks, now exhausted, in Liverpool Bay. ENI plans to store 4.5 million tons of CO2 per year, an amount that could increase to 10 million after 2030, the equivalent of 4 million cars. The company plans to reuse part of the platforms in the sea and the existing gas pipes, and build 35 kilometers of additional pipes.
Capture and carbon storage (CCS) consists in capturing factories emissions before they go in the atmosphere. The CO2, the main responsible for global warming, is injected in depth in geological tanks or, in some cases, is reused. However, the solution is complex by the Intergovernmental Group of Climate Evolution (IPCC) experts, in particular to reduce the printing of difficult decarter industries, such as cement factories or the steel industry, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But environmental NGOs denounce the massive investment of London in this sector, asking to favor renewable energies. A parliamentary committee criticized in February a commitment of “high risk” on a technology that “has not been demonstrated.” The total CO2 capture capacity is currently reaching only 50.5 million tons per year worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. Or 0.1% of global emissions.
Source: BFM TV
