North Sea rocks have huge CO2 storage capacity

Tuesday, 05 May 2009 08:00

Salt aquifers under the North Sea may prove to be of great value. The Rocks can store the entire carbon dioxide output from Scotland and North East England for 200 years, a new study shows.

If power plants could trap carbon dioxide and pump it back underground, it wouldn't add to global warming. In that way carbon capture and storage - the so-called CCS technology – could be a way to cut emissions and meet the levels required by international treaties, while still continuing to burn coal.

A new study from the University of Edinburgh shows that salt aquifers under the North Sea may store 4.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide – equivalent to the entire carbon dioxide output from Scotland and North East England for two centuries, Bloomberg reports.

"Our ambition is to become a world leader in reducing harmful emissions and producing clean, green energy," Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond tells the news agency. "The development of CCS in Scotland, including power stations and storage networks, has the potential to support 10,000 jobs," he says.

No new coal-fired power stations could be built without adopting the new carbon technology, says Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, according to Bloomberg.

Scotland's storage capacity is huge. The aquifers and depleted offshore oil and gas fields are similar to that of Norway, and bigger than that of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany combined, Bloomberg reports. 

(Source: COP15.dk -Rie Jerichow)