Eon calls for £1bn to clean up coal

The Sunday Times
March 15, 2009
Danny Fortson

THE German energy giant Eon will throw down the gauntlet to the government this week with an offer to build the world’s largest “clean-coal” power station in Britain, but only if it is given about £1 billion in taxpayers’ money to cover building costs.
Paul Golby, chief executive of Eon UK, will make the “you fund it, we’ll fit it” pitch at an industry conference this week. Eon’s decision to publicly raise the pressure reflects growing frustration from power companies at the pace of decision-making for large projects and lack of a clear policy on coal.
“The government thinking on this is moving in the right direction, but it’s not moving fast enough. We are wasting time, and this is too important to wait,” Golby told The Sunday Times.
Eon first applied to build its new coal-fired station at Kingsnorth, Kent, more than two years ago but is still waiting for approval. It is now offering to fit the entire proposed 1.6Gw station with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which promises to capture chimney exhaust and bury it underground – if the government covers all the additional costs, estimated to be about £1 billion.

Kingsnorth is one of three projects being considered in a government competition under which one will be awarded taxpayer money to fit CCS to a small portion of a power station to demonstrate that the technology works. Doing it on an entire station would be costly and risky: today there is only one CCS-equipped station in the world, and it is one-fiftieth the size of Kingsnorth.
Eon’s brazen offer threatens to disrupt the government’s competition. Golby said: “We’re not trying to drive a coach and horses through their competition, but we are trying to urge them to increase the sense of urgency on this.”