Keadby power stations to connect to North Sea CO2 infrastructure

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway – Equinor and SSE Thermal plan to jointly develop two low-carbon power stations in the Humber region in eastern England.

The projects would use hydrogen and CO₂ pipeline infrastructure being developed by the Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH) partnership – which includes the two companies – and offshore CO₂ infrastructure developed by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), which includes Equinor.

The two decarbonized power stations would form a clean power hub near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

Keadby 3 is a proposed 900-MW power station fuelled by natural gas and equipped with carbon capture technology to remove the CO₂ from its emissions. Captured CO₂ would then be transported using shared pipelines before being stored beneath the UK southern North Sea.

A formal consultation for the project closed earlier this year and Equinor expects submission of a development consent application to follow shortly. Keadby 3 could be onstream by 2027.

Keadby Hydrogen power station would have a peak demand of 1,800 MW of hydrogen, producing zero emissions at the point of combustion. It would also be the world’s first major 100% hydrogen-fired power station, Equinor claimed, and could be operational before the end of this decade.

In both cases, final investment decisions will depend on the progress of UK policy frameworks.

Equinor and SSE are also co-operating to construct the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea.

04/08/2021