UK: No new coal without CCS

The UK government unveiled new regulations that ban the commissioning of coal-fired power plants unless they incorporate carbon capture and storage technologies.

The mandate, immediately in effect, requires CCS on at least 400 megawatts of output (or 300 MW of capacity) for new coal power stations. The rule gets increasingly stringent until 2025, when 100 percent of carbon emissions must be captured. That ruling is only applicable if the technology exists by then.

The ruling isn't expected to deter coal-fired power plants.

"In the UK, a third of our existing coal-fired power stations are due to close in the coming decade," according to a statement of Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband. "In order to ensure that we maintain a diverse energy mix, including maximising our domestic fuel supply, we need new coal-fired power stations but only if they can be part of a low carbon future."

The government is considering a feed-in tariff for CCS projects that could increase utility bills by about 2 percent by 2020.

Miliband also said the government woudl encourage CCS projects to be developed in clusters in order to share the infrastructure to transport carbon to be stored in the North Sea.

Canada has passed a similar measure that takes effect in 2012 (see Canada to require carbon capture and storage by 2012).