SSE has been granted development consent for Keadby 3, a 910MW (gross) gas-fired power station. The company now has seven years to start work on the project.
Current planning guidance states that no consent should be granted to new combustion generating stations rated at or over 300MW, unless the proposed development is ‘carbon capture ready’ as a prelude to the introduction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) “once it has been demonstrated at a commercial scale”. But the Secretary of State said he had “taken into account that the proposed development would install carbon capture and compression equipment from the outset and consequently would support the UK’s transition towards the net zero target”. Under a reference scenario carbon capture will capture and sequester 90.7% of expected emissions, so that less than 10% of the emissions enter the atmosphere.
The carbon dioxide will be absorbed in a ‘stripper’ expected to be around 53m high.
The conditioned and dehydrated carbon dioxide would be compressed and metered, then discharged into a so-called ‘gathering network’ for onwards transport to an offshore carbon store for permanent storage.
The CCGT plant cannot be brought into commercial operation until the carbon dioxide capture plant and the compressor station have also been brought into commercial use. The compressor station would ultimately be linked to a high-pressure CO2 pipeline.
The Secretary of State noted that Keadby is close to the Zero Carbon Humber cluster, which will include a carbon dioxide pipeline, but the proposals for consenting the carbon gathering network and export pipeline will be progressed under a separate development consent order.