jhorn@thekmgroup.co.uk

Energy giant E.ON has made a bid for European funding to develop clean coal technology at Kingsnorth Power Station.
The company has already been short-listed in the UK Government’s competition to demonstrate large-scale capture, transportation and storage of carbon, and now hopes also to secure support from the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR).
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the UK are being given the chance to bid for £180 million euros, about £156 million.
E.ON want the cash to develop a Thames Cluster, which would see emissions from Kinsgnorth and other plants on the Thames and Medway Estuaries, being captured and transported in one pipeline to the Hewett offshore gas field and stored under the North Sea.
E.ON expect to find out if its bid has been successful in the autumn and the money is expected to be allocated by the end of the year.
Andy Read, clean coal business development manager for E.ON UK, said: “CCS is an essential technology for reducing global emissions, and needs to be developed rapidly if the UK, and Europe, is to play its part in the fight against climate change.
“Our vision is for Kingsnorth to act as the gateway to CCS development, and therefore to the decarbonisation of energy, through the creation of a 'Thames Cluster’ that could see power stations and industrial sites in the south east of England hooking up to a single carbon pipeline.
“The south east has the highest level of energy demand in the UK and we expect this to continue, particularly as we look to the electrification of transport, so the development of a proposal like this represents a truly world-leading opportunity for the region and for the country as a whole.”
“A cluster approach would effectively 'future proof’ the development of CCS by allowing new facilities to connect quickly to a transportation system that would work much like the existing national grids for gas supplies and for electricity transmission.”
E.ON has already begun field work on the Hoo Peninsula to identify possible pipeline routes to carry emissions away from Kingsnorth. The company is still waiting for permission to build two new coal-fired units at the plant. Climate and energy minister Ed Miliband is not expected to make the decision until the autumn, following a full review of the UK’s coal-policy.