Kingsnorth 2 and carbon capture technology

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has often been touted by supporters of the Kingsnorth 2 power station project as a way of generating electricity from 'clean coal'. There's a nice graphic on the BBC website which shows how in theory the practice would work. E.ON themselves describe Kingsnorth 2 as a 'cleaner' coal plant (see their website here).

However despite the publicity surrounding CCS, and attempts to link it to the new generation of coal plants threatened for the UK, the technology itself has yet to be tested on any large scale.

Joss Garman from Greenpeace writes:

"The theoretical possibility of CCS is being used by government and industry as a wedge to drive through new coal fired power stations in the UK. Kingsnorth 2, and others like Tilbury, Blyth, Ferrybridge, High Marnham, Longannet and Cockenzie, would each emit millions of tons of CO2 and are NOT CCS plants. They are plain old fashioned coal plants."

Read more about CCS and Kingsnorth on Greenpeace's website