Britain’s first commercially viable carbon storage facility has been given the green light, as part of a £4 billion scheme to capture millions of tonnes of CO2 and store it under the North Sea.
In a significant milestone towards making carbon capture and storage a reality, regulators have granted a consortium, led by BP, a permit to begin pumping CO2 in a site nearly a thousand metres below the seabed off the coast of Yorkshire.
The first carbon is expected to enter the site within four years — with permission to “inject” up to four million tonnes of CO2 a year for 25 years.
The decision should open the way to build the world’s first “net-zero” gas-fired power station in Teesside with the emissions captured