Don Valley Power Project
2Co Energy Ltd acquired Powerfuel Power Ltd and the Hatfield Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project at Stainforth in South Yorkshire, in May 2011, and has renamed the project the Don Valley Power Project (DVPP). This limited information on the project has been made available on the day the acquisition was made and will be extended shortly.
CCS has an important role to play in the UK meeting its CO2 emissions reduction targets. The Yorkshire and Humberside region has the UK's largest concentration of coal and gas fired power generation and the CO2 emissions from those plants will have to be reduced dramatically if they are to be able to continue to operate. The plant at Stainforth, and the infrastructure it will create, have important roles to play to enable the region to continue to generate power from fossil fuels and to allow other energy intensive industries, such as steel and cement, to also install carbon capture technology. Other new businesses which will also need to capture and reduce their CO2 emissions may also be attracted to the region.
The project at Stainforth is one of the UK's and EU's leading CCS power projects and aims to be one of the four projects that the UK government is committed to supporting. It is a 650MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant which would capture and store up to 5 million tonnes per year, or 90%, of the CO2 emissions that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere.
2Co Energy plans to store the CO2 in North Sea oil fields which provide the most secure and permanent storage for CO2. CO2 also helps produce more of the oil than would otherwise be recoverable which can significantly extend the life of the oil field and the associated jobs.
Although the plant has already been granted its Section 36 planning application, a final investment decision will only be taken when the project has won the necessary financial support from the EU and UK government. It is anticipated this will be done in time for the investment decision to be taken by mid-2013 and, after a construction period of a little over 3 years, the plant should be commissioned in 2016.
