Don Valley Power Project
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The Don Valley Power Project began as the Hatfield Power Station, a proposed 900-megawatt (MW) coal gasification project in South Yorkshire, England.
The project was sold to Sargas in 2014, which plans to use natural gas for the CCS project. Coal may be used in a second phase of the project, although Sargas said in 2015 that its current plans are only for gas.
Contents
Location
The map below shows the approximate location where the plant would be built at Stainforth in South Yorkshire.
Background on plant
The power station was originally proposed by Powerfuel with a notional commissioning date of 2013.[1]
In May 2011, 2Co Energy acquired Powerfuel Power Ltd and the Hatfield Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project at Stainforth in South Yorkshire and renamed the project the Don Valley Power Project (DVPP). The project is a 900MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant which proposes to capture and store up to 5 million tonnes per year, or 90%, of its CO2 emissions. 2Co Energy plans to store the CO2 in North Sea oil fields.[2]
2Co said that although the plant has been granted its Section 36 planning application, a final investment decision would only be taken when the project had won financial support from the EU and UK government, anticipated to be taken by mid-2013. 2co stated that, after a construction period of a little over 3 years, the plant should be commissioned in 2016.[2]
Proposed pipeline route
In November 2011, National Grid announced the proposed route of the pipe to pump greenhouse gases into the North Sea from Hatfield. The 40-mile (64km) long underground pipeline would stretch from a power station near Doncaster and pass under Market Weighton before crossing the coastline at Barmston. The CO2 would be pumped into porous rocks off the Holderness coast. If approved, construction work would start in 2014. Initially, the the pipeline would carry the carbon dioxide emissions from the planned Don Valley Power Project, but the developers hope that other local facilities producing carbon dioxide emissions, such as the Scunthorpe steel works, could also be connected in the future.[3]
Success (2010), then failure (2012) at procuring financing
The Don Valley Project, the company states on its website, has been "awarded €180 million of EU funding in 2010 and planning permission was awarded in 2009. National Grid is currently permitting a pipeline to take the CO2 offshore to North Sea storage sites. The project currently expects to be operational by the end of 2016" with an estimated total cost of "up to £5 billion".[4]
In October 2012 the company reported that it had failed to win financial backing from the UK government. CEO Lewis Gillies stated,"This is truly disappointing news for the Doncaster area where we would have built this plant and for our world-class project team working to deliver it. We will complete the current phase of the project and meet the knowledge-share obligations of our existing EEPR funding from the EU but we cannot take this project further without funding from the UK government."[5]
Sale to Sar Gas
In July 2014, 2Co Energy report that it was in "exclusive negotiations" to sell the Don Valley project to Sargas, a privately held Norwegian company specialized in CO2 capture technology.[6]
In December 2014 Sargas Power acquired the Don Valley Power and CCS Project from 2Co Energy. The project was awarded a €180 million grant under the European Economic Programme for Recovery (EEPR), which the CCS Association said is still available and "continues to be essential in funding the project to the point where the final investment decision will be made."[7]
In June 2015 Sargas said that, under the first phase of the project, it would be powered by natural gas rather than coal. Construction is planned to begin in 2018 and operation in 2020. Sargas Managing Director Dewi ab Iorwerth said that "Coal would be the second phase and that could still happen one day but it is not planned at the moment.... Coal is not off the agenda for future development, but the current plans are just for gas.”[8]
Project Details
- Sponsor: Sargas
- Parent company:
- Developer:
- Location: Stainforth, South Yorkshire, UK
- Coordinates: 53.595816, -1.019411 (approximate)
- Status: Cancelled (will be gas plant instead)
- Capacity: 900 MW
- Type: IGCC
- Start date:
- Coal Type: Hard coal
- Coal Source:
- Source of financing: European Union's Energy Programme for Recovery
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ James Richens, "King coal promises to clean up", ENDS Report 396, January 2008, pp 26-29.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Don Valley Power Project" 2Co Energy, accessed Nov. 2011.
- ↑ "Route of proposed carbon dioxide capture pipe announced" BBC, Nov. 17, 2011.
- ↑ 2Co Energy Ltd, "Don Valley CCS Project, South Yorkshire, UK", 2Co Energy website, accessed October 2012.
- ↑ "EU's leading carbon capture project fails to win UK government backing," 2Co press release, 30 October 2012
- ↑ "Exclusive negotiations for sale of Don Valley Power Project to Sargas," 2Co Energy press release
- ↑ "Sargas Power," CCSA, accessed Aug 2015
- ↑ "Doncaster carbon capture power plan still on track, says new boss," The Star UK, June 26, 2015
Related SourceWatch Articles
- Carbon Capture and Storage
- Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration projects worldwide
- Carbon Capture and Storage in the United Kingdom
- United Kingdom and coal
