This presentation was prepared for - but not given at - a conference on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in London.
The UK Government was then offering the power companies £ 1 billion to build coal- or gas-fired power plants with CCS.
But some UK power companies – E.ON and RWE (trading as 'npower') – are German-owned, and would have been aware of German studies comparing CCS and Renewable Energy, notably wind power.
Yet the UK Government should also have been aware of this work, as the reports are in English:
2008, 'RECCS. Ecological, Economic and Structural Comparison of Renewable Energy Technologies (RE) with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) - An Integrated Approach'.
2010, 'RECCS Plus. Comparison of Renewable Energy Technologies with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)'.
Had they been aware of the German work, they would have realised that CCS could never compete with wind power.
Moreover, electricity from wind could reach 75% of UK demand before long-term storage – via German-developed 'Power-to-Gas – becomes necessary to reach 100%.
2013-10-09 Electricity from Wind and Storage
In the event, no power companies took up the offer, and it was withdrawn.