OREANDA-NEWS. National Grid has successfully completed test drilling of a carbon dioxide storage site in the North Sea – a major milestone in delivering a storage solution for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

Early indications are that the undersea site 65 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast is viable for carbon dioxide storage and will be able to hold around 200 million tonnes permanently. This is equivalent to taking ten million cars off the road for 10 years.

The drilling is a major milestone in its Don Valley storage work programme funded by an EU grant to advance CCS in Europe. The findings are significant as this type of storage site is common in Europe.

Power stations and industry in the Humber region create about 10% of total UK emissions. Captured carbon dioxide from this cluster of emitters could be taken in shared pipelines and stored in the North Sea storage site. National Grid would use its expertise in developing, constructing and operating gas pipelines to create a network to transport carbon dioxide.

The recent test drilling will provide additional data to confirm the volume that the site can hold and the rate that CO2 can be injected.