The UK’s National Grid has just completed its first test in the North Sea, drilling for a new and innovative carbon dioxide storage site.
The National Grid is a multinational gas and electricity utility company that has headquarters in London. They are planning to create a underwater site that will be 65 kilometers of the coastline in Yorkshire. They are planning to use this proposed site as a carbon dioxide storage centre.
The proposed storage site of the Yorkshire coast could potentially permanently hold around 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide according to the National Grid. In comparison this would be the equivalent to taking around one million cars of the roads of Britain for ten consecutive years.
The test drilling site for the carbon dioxide storage facility is apart of the Don Valley storage work programme. This programme is being funded by a massive EU grant to help speed up the carbon capture and storage in the United Kingdom.
Global energy demand is predicted to double within the next two decades, as a result of this more high carbon fuels will be burned. To offset the larger energy demand the EU is planning to use carbon capture and storage schemes, so that the extra carbon that would usually be emitted by burning carbon fuels is captured and stored. This eliminates the carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere and damaging our planet. This will pave the way for the create of low carbon electricity and could even potentially create cheaper domestic and business electricity.
Power stations in the Humber, Northern England account for around 10% of the UK’s carbon emissions. If the National Grid can capture this carbon it could then be taken in shared pipelines and stored under the North Sea.
This carbon capture and storage scheme is a multi-million pound programme that they are hoping will help reduce the carbon emission across the UK.
The All About Savings team think that this is a good idea, but we are worried about any implications it could have if the storage site is breached or there is any carbon leaks under the North Sea. We just hope the National Grid are taking the correct precautions to make sure there will never be any problems with leaks.
