US clean energy firm 8 Rivers Capital , acting through its UK subsidiary Zero Degrees Whitetail Development (ZDW), and Sembcorp Energy UK (SEUK), part of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries , have signed a collaborative agreement to develop the UK’s first net zero emissions power plant. The plant will be located at SEUK’s Wilton International site on Teesside.
The Wilton International site has convenient port and pipeline access. All of its captured carbon dioxide can be transported to UK sequestration sites to be permanently stored in geological formations under the North Sea. The Whitetail Clean Energy project is expected to produce about 300 MW.
The facility will use the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, pioneered by NET Power and 8 Rivers Capital. The process combusts natural gas with oxygen, rather than air, and uses carbon dioxide as a working fluid to drive the turbine. All emissions are eliminated, and pipeline quality carbon dioxide is produced that can be captured and stored offshore.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK Energy and Climate Change minister, said that the development of the power station was: “A real game-changer and a significant step forward in the UK’s fight against climate change.”