Seizing the gas after combustion at the 2.2GW plant, and introducing hydrogen as a clean fuel, are among possibilities to be assessed.
Scheduled for completion early next year, Fluor’s feasibility study is part of decarbonisation plans identified by RWE for its Pembroke Net Zero Centre, launched last year.
Last month, staff at the 10 year old power station celebrated RWE’s declared intention – pictured – to make it carbon neutral by 2040. It is Wales’s biggest generator, and reputedly the most efficient CCGT station in the UK.
Its surrounding PNZC brings together expertise from RWE’s businesses in offshore wind, gas-fired generation and hydrogen.
The feasibility assessment will underpin analysis needed for RWE to participate in the UK government’s process for selecting and prioritising likely CCUS hubs.
Whitehall wants deploy CCUS in at least two industrial clusters by the mid-2020s, and four by 2030.
Pembroke’s location in south Wales’ industrial hub blesses it with advantages to collaborate with partners, whose activities range from port operation, marine transport and storage of CO2, to the supply of clean hydrogen.
PNCZ director Richard Little said: “RWE is committed to decarbonising its business by 2040, a date that in the UK fits nicely alongside the government’s ambition for a net zero power sector by 2035.
“Through our PNZC we will create a hub for our green energy projects, including the development of floating wind in the Celtic Sea, the development of a hydrogen electrolyser and decarbonisation of Pembroke Power station through a mixture of carbon capture and hydrogen fuel,” Little added.
RWE has budgeted £15 billion this decade to spend on green energy projects in the UK.
Helping RWE fund Fluor’s CCS study are its fellow members of the South Wales Industrial Cluster; a consortium of Wales’s major industry, energy, infrastructure, law, academic and engineering organisations.
SWIC vaunts its success in securing government and private sector support to develop a range of decarbonisation projects for the region.
