At a conference in London on CCS regulation and financing in the US, Lewes Gilles, chief executive of Hydrogen Energy outlined how the firm is hoping to build a 390MW hydrogen-powered plant in Kern County, California, which would capture more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year. If built, Hydrogen Energy claims it is likely to be the first CCS plant in the country.

CCS has garnered strong support from regulators in California. Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said that the state had a “responsibility … to help develop this technology”. The commission last month green-lit a study by utility Southern California Edison to carry out a $30 million feasibility study, laying the ground for the Kern County plant.

But Cowart from RAP said that these efforts “are not matched in the other 49 US states”.

“Significant public financial support [will be needed] to get these projects off the ground,” he said, adding that a federal cap-and-trade system to control greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to provide this impetus. “We would need something like $90 a tonne [of CO2] for 20 to 30 years in order for the market, by itself, to pull CCS projects into the queue.”

He warned: “If CCS is going to happen we have got to stop building unabated coal,” and dismantle a number of regulatory and financial barriers to utilities installing CCS.

Some states have put in place policies meant to encourage CCS, such as pre-approving sites for sequestering the captured CO2 deep underground and performance standards, which require utilities to buy electricity generated by plants with CCS if it is available. But none, he said, have removed enough barriers to spark CCS development.