_______________________________

Carbon capture plans threaten shutdown of all UK  coal-fired power stations
Radical proposals to require existing plants,  including Drax, to fit the technology would force their closure, government  admits
Tim Webb  and Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk,      Wednesday 17 June 2009  18.54 BST

All of Britain's coal-fired power stations, including Drax, the country's largest emitter  of carbon, could be forced to close down under radical plans unveiled by  government today.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, is proposing to extend his plans to force companies  to fit carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) onto new coal plants - as  revealed by the Guardian - to cover a dozen existing coal plants.

The  consultation published by his Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)  conceded that if this happened "we could expect them to close".

A  spokeswoman said that no decision had yet been made. The government could  instead decide to allow coal plants still open in 2020 to operate for a  limited period or to keep them in reserve to stop the lights going  out.

A spokesman for a company operating several coal plants in the UK  said that even if Miliband did not carry out his threat and force existing  coal plants to fit expensive CCS equipment, any further restrictions on their  operation would be likely to result in their closure. It will probably prove  too difficult and expensive to fit CCS to plants nearing the end of their  lifespan.

Drax is the UK's newest and biggest coal-fired station. The  Yorkshire plant, which provides about 8 per cent of Britain's electricity, is  technically able to continue to operate into the 2030s. But since it is 40  miles from the coast, transporting captured carbon for storage in the North  Sea would be particularly difficult.

Dorothy Thompson, chief executive  of Drax, accepted that the plant might eventually need to fit CCS but did not  say when this would be feasible or economic.

David Porter, head of  trade body the Association of Electricity Producers, said he welcomed CCS as a  way of making coal plants environmentally acceptable, but said existing  stations which could not fit the equipment should not be forced to close.  "There are already quite enough coal-fired plants coming off the system.  Security of supply should be taken seriously," he warned.

The Guardian  has also learnt that E.ON's controversial plans to build a new coal-fired  station in Kingsnorth -  the first in the UK for more than 20 years - are likely to be delayed by  several years at least. It would represent a temporary victory for  environmental campaigners, who staged last summer's climate camp near the Kent  site. The Kingsnorth plans could be scrapped altogether.

E.ON has  entered the new station into a government competition to build the first  commercial-scale CCS demonstration project. DECC has now admitted that the  decision to pick a winner has been delayed and will not take place until the  autumn of 2010 at the earliest. Miliband reiterated the government's ambition  to have the winning project operational in 2014.

E.ON is becoming  increasingly concerned about the tight schedule of four years to build its  first highly efficient coal plant in the UK which is also equipped with  experimental CCS technology. The delay in the competition could favour  Scottish Power's entry at Longannet, which involves attaching CCS to an  existing coal station.

Miliband told the Guardian that the short space  of time for E.ON to build a new plant was "one of the factors" which would  influence the decision but declined to comment further.

Paul Golby,  E.ON's chief executive, has admitted the firm would not build Kingsnorth if it  did not win the competition. Under Miliband's plans announced in April, all  new coal plants must fit CCS to part of the operation. Golby said it would not  be economic to do this without government subsidies and added that E.ON could  build a gas plant instead.

John Sauven, executive director of  Greenpeace UK, urged the government to make all existing coal plants fit CCS:  "If we fail to act, Drax will remain one of the largest sources of carbon  dioxide in the world for decades," he said. "The government's own advisors on  climate change have stated that all emissions from coal must cease by the  early 2020s.

"That's all coal, not just new coal, so it's vital that Ed  Miliband's new policy doesn't ignore the inconvenient truth that we need to  deal with the reality of Drax every bit as urgently as the threat of  Kingsnorth."