Carbon capture program gets $50m boost

The federal government's Global CCS Institute has today announced a $50 million program to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage projects worldwide.

The Institute will provide $50 million annually for direct support of large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects around the world to assist them move through the critical stages of project development to operation.

Global CCS Institute CEO Nick Otter said "Our financial resources are focused towards those projects that promise the greatest return towards delivering our objective of accelerating the construction and operation of CCS projects."

"We want to engage with those projects where we can have an immediate impact by helping them remove the obstacles to their success," he said.

A recent study released by the Global CCS Institute showed that there are 55 fully integrated, commercial-scale projects around the world, each at a different stage of planning but all facing similar barriers to their development.

The assistance announced today will target a diverse range of projects with support to undertake concept and pre-feasibility studies, or to contribute to specific aspects of feasibility and front end engineering and design (FEED) studies.

Governments around the world have, or are considering, allocating public funding towards CCS projects to help bridge the commercial gap.

As a result, the Global CCS Institute's funding will primarily focus on removing barriers facing specific projects, as well as assisting with delivering regulatory frameworks that enable quicker deployment, and linking potential project partners and investors.

The program will aim to capture relevant knowledge from projects it supports to allow the broader industry to learn from project experiences, and increase their prospects for success.

The support provided by the Global CCS Institute will be allocated through engagement with projects on an ongoing basis, and may be allocated for single or multiple years to meet the specific needs of different projects. In order to kick start the process formal applications are being sought by January 8 2010.