Energy company E.ON has submitted an entry for European funding in support of its proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) development at Kingsnorth in Kent.

The company has already been short-listed in the UK Government's competition to demonstrate the capture, transportation and storage of carbon from a large-scale project and now hopes also to secure support from the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR).

Andy Read, Clean Coal Business Development Manager for E.ON UK, said: "CCS is an essential technology for reducing global emissions, and needs to be developed rapidly if the UK, and Europe, is to play its part in the fight against climate change.

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"Our vision is for Kingsnorth to act as the gateway to CCS development, and therefore to the decarbonisation of energy, through the creation of a ‘Thames Cluster' that could see power stations and industrial sites in the south east of England hooking up to a single carbon pipeline.

"The south east has the highest level of energy demand in the UK and we expect this to continue, particularly as we look to the electrification of transport, so the development of a proposal like this represents a truly world-leading opportunity for the region and for the country as a whole."

A cluster approach would effectively 'future proof' the development of CCS by allowing new facilities to connect quickly to a transportation system that would work much like the existing national grids for gas supplies and for electricity transmission.

(CD/KMcA)