Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships Program

The Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program is an Australian government program "designed to accelerate the development and demonstration of CCS technologies" by "supporting a small number of demonstration projects". The Department of Energy, Resources and Tourism states that the "program supports the construction of 2 to 4 commercial scale CCS projects with an electricity generating capacity of 1000 mega watts or equivalent size for other industrial processes."

Assessment of nominated projects
The department appointed an "Independent Assessment Panel (IAP) of technical and commercial experts to assist by assessing projects and providing recommendations to the Government". The members of the IAP are:


 * Mr Keith Spence (Chair), National Mapping and Carbon Storage Taskforce
 * Mr Dick Wells, National Low Emissions Coal Council Chair
 * Ms Sabine Schleicher, KPMG
 * Mr Bill Koppe, Global CCS Institute
 * Mr John Ryan, National Research Infrastructure Council Chair
 * Mr Peter Lake, Petroleum industry consultant.

Shortlisted projects
In December 2009 the federal Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism Martin Ferguson announced that four projects had been shortlistted. These are:


 * "The Wandoan Power Project located north-west of Brisbane, Queensland, an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) coal fired power project.
 * The ZeroGen project located west of Gladstone in Queensland; also an IGCC project.
 * The Collie South West Hub located south of Perth in Western Australia in close proximity to the industrial centres of Kwinana and Collie and based around an integrated multi-user capture, transport and storage infrastructure project.
 * The CarbonNet proposal in Victoria’s La Trobe valley, another integrated multi-user capture, transport and storage infrastructure project, with sources of CO2 from electricity generating plans in that area."

Budget
In May 2010 the Australian government stated that it had committed $2.0 billion in funding to the program.

Program Website
Website: http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/energy%20programs/cei/ccsfp/Pages/default.aspx

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Carbon Capture and Storage in Australia
 * Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration projects worldwide
 * Australia and coal