The UK government has awarded a £4.6m grant for the north east in the UK, including £1.3m for supporting the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the region.
The grant was unveiled by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable on his visit to Corus and the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth.
This funding is part of the Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP), which has already invested around £30m out of a total allocation of £60m for low-carbon technologies in the region, Energy Efficiency News reported.
The funds support 14 projects, which include awards to Progressive Energy and Rio Tinto Alcan of £240,000 and £430,000, respectively, for two CCS projects.
The grant will help Progressive Energy to develop its plans for pre-combustion CO2 capture on an 850MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant at Eston Grange and Rio Tinto Alcan to explore retrofit technology for its existing Lynemouth Power Station.
Supporting the projects at this stage, will allow the companies to go forward and bid for major funding from the Government's national CCS demonstrator program, the news agency reported.
The rest of the funds will go to Durham University to explore potential North Sea storage options and Amec and Element Energy, which will look at engineering options for a CCS network.
