8 Rivers Capital’s UK-based project Whitetail Clean Energy has been selected by the UK government as one of three ‘Power CCS’ low carbon energy generation projects within the UK business and energy ministry’s CCUS cluster sequencing programme phase 2 stage, the other two being Net Zero Teesside Power and Keadby 3 carbon capture Power Station.
This will enable Whitetail to proceed to the due diligence stage of the Phase-2 Cluster Sequencing process with the UK government to secure a dispatchable power agreement and work towards the UK’s first virtually zero emissions power plant. Securing a dispatchable power agreement will enable the facility to connect into the East Coast Cluster for carbon sequestration and to generate up to 350 MW of clean power.
8 Rivers Capital is committed to the deployment of deep decarbonisation technologies at a macro-scale, via long term collaboration with the UK government. Backing from the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change in 2012 with £4.9m of the CCS Innovation Programme was followed by funding from The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to support a pre-FEED study in 2020, focused on delivering the scalable, UK-specific design. During the construction phase, Whitetail Clean Energy is expected to support over 2000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs, including cascading supply chain opportunities.
Cam Hosie, CEO of 8 Rivers Capital commented: “This is truly a milestone, representing more than 10 years’ work and collaboration with the UK government. We are grateful for the partnership and are delighted that Whitetail Clean Energy has demonstrated the potential to deliver a game-changing dispatchable form of clean power to complement renewables. Being selected as a Phase 2 emitter project will enable us to progress and enter negotiations to secure a dispatchable power agreement ahead of first operations in the next decade.”
The 20 carbon capture power and carbon capture industrial projects represent a range of innovative CCUS technologies that BEIS believes have the potential to accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation ambitions, realise economic benefits in the North West, North Wales, Teesside and Humber regions, kick start the hydrogen economy and put the UK on a path to decarbonising its power system by 2035.
