Carbon capture projects unlikely by 2020 - MPs

LONDON (Reuters) - The government is unlikely to see commercial carbon-capture and storage (CCS) projects by 2020 and the government should devise a plan on how to reach climate targets by the end of the decade if CCS is not delivered, a parliamentary committee said in a report on Tuesday.

Britain plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and CCS technology fitted to carbon-intensive coal plants is considered key to reaching this target.

But a British government decision last week to withdrawn funding for the country's first and most advanced CCS project at Longannet in Scotland has underscored critics' doubts that the expensive technology can reach commercial scale by the end of the decade.

"If CCS technology is not commercially available by 2020, the UK could face an energy dilemma," members of parliament (MPs) from the Energy and Climate Change Committee said in a report summarising the group's findings into Britain's security of supply.

"Either provide energy security but exceed carbon budgets by running new unabated fossil plant; or, meet climate change obligations but risk energy security by shutting down (or using only very sparingly) unabated fossil plant."

The group urged the government to immediately draw up plans on the impact of a lack of CCS technology on Britain's climate targets.

The MPs also asked the government to commission a report into the consequences on climate targets of leaving unabated gas-fired power plants running during the 2020s.

Last week the government said it had dropped funding for the Longannet CCS project but that the one billion pounds in subsidies would be dedicated to a different CCS project.

The leading trade union body warned last week the country must step up investment in clean coal or risk losing jobs and jeopardising chances to lead global CCS development.

GAS STORAGE

Britain also needs to double gas storage capacity by 2020 to ease exposure to supply interruptions and price spikes, the report said.

The country currently has storage capacity to cover 14 days' worth of gas supply, compared with 87 in France, 69 in Germany and 59 in Italy.

"The issue of gas storage is likely to worsen as the proportion of intermittent renewable generation increases, since more flexible gas-fired power plants may be required to provide 'back-up' when the wind does not blow," the MPs said.

(Reporting by Karolin Schaps; editing by Jason Neely)