30 June 2008 17:52
E.ON welcomes news Kingsnorth clean coal project taken to next stage in government's CCS competition

E.ON, one of the UK’s leading generators, has today welcomed the news that its Kingsnorth clean coal project has been piloted through prequalification in the Government's carbon capture and storage competition.

The project calls for carbon capture and storage to be fitted to the planned 1,600MW cleaner coal-fired units that E.ON aims to build next to its existing station in Kent.

Bob Taylor, Managing Director of Generation at E.ON UK, said: “Developing a large-scale carbon capture and storage project in the UK is vitally important to ensure that we can reduce our carbon emissions, ensure security of supply and keep energy as affordable as possible.

“We firmly believe that our Kingsnorth project – which is the only modern, highly efficient coal-fired power station currently in planning – is a strong candidate for this competition.  

“We look forward to supplying the Government with more detail about our plans and hopefully to making Kingsnorth into the world’s first large-scale CCS demonstration plant.”

The company's entry into the CCS competition is supported by a number of partners, including:

• Arup - for project management;
• EPRI - for international technology dissemination.
• Fluor - as carbon capture technology supplier;
• MHI - as carbon capture technology supplier; mf
• Penspen - for pipeline transportation; and
• Tullow Oil - for carbon dioxide storage.

E.ON is reducing its reliance on coal and oil by over 2.6GW between now and 2015. This involves shutting 2.9GW of coal power station capacity split between the existing Kingsnorth and Ironbridge power stations, closing the 1.3GW Grain oil-fired power station by the end of 2015 and building two new, more efficient CCS-ready 800MW coal units at Kingsnorth.   

E.ON is committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its emissions across Europe by 50% by 2030. This builds on the existing reduction in carbon intensity of 20% since 1990.

To achieve its goal, E.ON is changing energy for the better and investing for a low-carbon future. Its plans in the UK include:

• £325m on building the Robin Rigg offshore wind farm in the Solway Firth;
• £700m on building the Humber Gateway offshore wind farm;
• Joint venture partner in the London Array, the world's largest offshore wind farm;
• £1bn for gas-fired power stations at the Isle of Grain in Kent (which is currently being built) and at Drakelow in Derbyshire (which has permission from the Government); and
• Gas storage facilities at Holford in Cheshire and at Aldbrough in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

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 17,000 people in the UK;

·       E.ON is the new name for Powergen. Our retail business is a leading energy supplier in the UK, with around 8 million electricity and gas customer accounts, covering domestic, SME and industrial. E.ON offers central heating and boiler care through its Home Energy Services business;

·       Our distribution business, branded Central Networks, provides a reliable supply to 4.9 customers in central England through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables – enough to go round the Earth more than three times – and via almost 97,000 substations. The company covers an area from the Peak District in the north to parts of Bristol in the south, and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast;

·       We are sponsoring The FA Cup, which is known as The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON. We are an official partner of The Tour of Britain, sponsoring the King of the Mountains competition;

·       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 have recently completed one of the UK’s largest dedicated biomass power stations at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester;

·       Our green development portfolio could power over a million homes and displace the emission of almost two million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by building new onshore and offshore wind farms, biomass power stations, and tidal stream and wave power schemes;

·       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 16.7% 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 has announced it intends to reduced the carbon intensity of its generation by 50% by 2030 (on 1990 levels);

·       E.ON Group aims to spend €6bn on green generation by the end of 2010.

For more information contact:

Jonathan Smith on 024 7618 3676

Emily Highmore on 024 7618 3680