A Billion Pound Fund for Green Tech

The UK government has relaunched a one billion pound fund for developing carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). Interested companies can submit their bid by July, according to a report.

Carbon capture and storage technology attempts to prevent a large amount of carbon in the atmosphere; it captures 90 per cent of carbon emission and permanently stores it underground. The one billion pounds in funding will be available to a wide range of projects, including gas power stations and even industrial plants involved as part of group schemes, to develop CCS on a commercial scale between 2016 and 2020, according to a Press Association report.

The government believes by the end of 2020 the CCS industry could contribute more than six billion pounds every year to the economy.

"The potential rewards from carbon capture and storage are immense: a technology that can decarbonise coal and gas-fired power stations and large industrial emitters, allowing them to play a crucial part in the UK's low carbon future," Press Association quoted Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

"What we are looking to achieve, in partnership with industry, is a new world-leading CCS industry, rather than just simply projects in isolation - an industry that can compete with other low-carbon sources to ensure security and diversity of our electricity supply, an industry that can make our energy-intensive industries cleaner and an industry that can bring jobs and wealth to our shores," he added.