ScottishPower Plans CO2 Storage Under North Sea

Iberdrola’s UK-based subsidiary ScottishPower has created a plan to liquefy CO2 emissions and store it in a rock formation beneath the North Sea, The Times has reported.

The electricity utility is hoping to win a competition that calls for the construction of a power plant with CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technology, and is pitching its plans to the British government.

Nick Horler, ScottishPower’s CEO was quoted by The Times as saying that the company has identified a rock formation in the North Sea capable of storing Europe’s entire CO2 emissions for the next 600 years.

ScottishPower is planning to install a CCS system at its Longannet coal-fired power station in Fife, Scotland, as one of the entries in the competition to develop a commercial-scale CCS-enabled power station by 2014.