31 October 2007 08:42
E.ON UK supports government's carbon capture and storage project

E.ON UK, one of the country's leading generators, has today confirmed its support for the Government's CCS project and its intention to take part in the competition.

The company is one of a handful of UK companies to have developed both pre- and post-combustion projects, most notably through its plans for carbon capture ready supercritical coal-fired units at Kingsnorth in Kent.

Dr Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, said: "We recognise that the Government has needed time to define its policy objectives and assess the available technology options against these.

"Making the technology choice now will enable developers to focus effort and expenditure on projects which will best meet those policy goals and avoid further expenditure on those it does not.

"We believe that the choice of post combustion demonstration technology fitted to a supercritical coal plant is entirely rational given that the Government has set, as a key policy aim, the objective of demonstrating technology that can be retrofitted in China and other countries to their new and future coal-fired plant.

"We therefore support the Government's decision and are currently evaluating options for entering a post combustion project or projects into the competition."

The company will decide on how best to enter the competition once there is further clarification of the rules next month.

E.ON is also one of the supporters of the FutureGen project in the US and is engaged in further research projects in Europe and in Canada. The company is also continuing to investigate ‘oxyfuel' firing as one method for clean coal generation at its technology centre in Nottinghamshire.

The Government is currently considering an application from E.ON to build two 800MW supercritical coal-fired units at its existing Kingsnorth power station in Kent.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas - and is part of the E.ON group, the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. We employ around 18,000 people in the UK;
• Our retail business, branded Powergen, is a leading energy supplier in the UK, with around 7.4 million electricity and gas customer accounts, both domestic and SME. In addition, we have around 13,000 industrial and commercial customers. Powergen offers central heating and boiler care through its Home Energy Services business;
• We are sponsoring The FA Cup, which is known as The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON. We sponsor Ipswich Town FC and are an official partner of The Tour of Britain, sponsoring the King of the Mountains competition. Our sponsorship of the weather on ITV also means that we're one of the best-known names in the business;
• The generation business produces enough electricity to cater for the needs of around eight million homes from a portfolio of world-class gas, coal and oil fired power stations;
• We are a market leader in combined heat and power, providing our customers with around 600MW of electricity and more than 1,000MW of heat at 13 sites across the country;
• We're one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 21 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and are currently building the UK's largest dedicated biomass power station at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester;
• We plan to spend £1bn on new renewables in the next five years, including new onshore and offshore wind, new biomass and wave and tidal power;
• Our target is to cut the carbon released by each kW of electricity we generate by 10% between 2005-2012, having already reduced it by 20% since 1990;
• We have 1,300MW of renewable capacity under development;
• We invested £53 million in energy efficiency in 2006. These measures included loft and cavity wall insulation, installation of energy efficient boilers and smart metering, a technology we are investing a further £12 million in over the next two years.;
• Our non-operational carbon intensity dropped by 15.5% per employee in 2006;
• We are investing £50 million in new technologies and approaches over the next 5 years, through the Energy Technologies institute;
• We have Biodiversity Action Plans at many of our sites which align us with the UK target of significantly reducing biodiversity loss;
• E.ON Group recently announced it intends to reduced the carbon intensity of its generation by 50% by 2030 (on 1990 levels);
• E.ON Group aims to spend €3bn on green generation by the end of 2010.

For more information contact:

Jonathan Smith on 024 7618 3676

Emily Highmore on 024 7618 3680