Eon moving forward again with their Kingsnorth plans
On Monday, E.ON submitted environmental scoping reports outlining their plans for a high pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline for its proposed replacement of the existing Kingsnorth coal-fired power station. The final proposals are expected to be submitted to Medway Council as part of a full pipeline planning application towards the end of this year.
Eon admit that the proposed pipeline is intended for a much larger scheme than just a new Kingsnorth – it would have sufficient capacity for an entire ‘Thames Cluster’ transporting 24 million tonnes of CO2 each year which is the equivalent to four new power stations the size of Kingsnorth!
If consent is given, the Eon pipeline will go over the Hoo Peninsula and then across the seabed taking it to North Sea where they claim it can be stored away and help mitigate against catastrophic climate change. Even assuming the idea is economically viable (and that the gas doesn’t escape too too quickly from ‘storage’), it is likely that much of the gas will be used to help energy companies extract even more oil and gas from north sea, which obviously means greater emissions.
I live in view of the power station and have only today 19th April 2010 received from eon a notice about this possible pipeline despite the fact that it appears from this article that they have filed their scoping report at the beginning of March. They have offered locals the opportunity to visit one of their exhibitions and given us less than a week’s notice before the meeting. An attempt to make sure that not to many locals can attend to object i think!