A Tees Valley scheme is one of four bids that have been short listed for the next phase of the government's £1bn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) competition.
If given the go ahead the project could bring a major jobs boost to the region. It could also be key to the area attracting future investment in the chemical, steel, manufacturing and energy sectors. The revolutionary CCS technology aims to safely remove and store harmful carbon emissions from coal and gas plants.
The four bidders were selected from eight applications received after an evaluation process that considered project deliverability, value for money, and the Government’s timetable to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry in the 2020s.
The successful projects are now being invited to take part in a period of intensive commercial negotiations with Government before decisions on which projects to support further are taken in the new year. 
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey said: “We have received some quality bids from industry who have really risen to the challenge set by the competition.
“The projects we have chosen to take forward have all shown that they have the potential to kick-start the creation of a new CCS industry in the UK, but further discussions are needed to ensure we deliver value-for-money for taxpayers. 
“Today’s announcement is an important step towards an exciting new industry, one that could help us reduce our carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs.”
“We have one of the best offers in the world and are a leading country in Europe. We will remain in close contact with the European Commission in the coming months as they take their decisions on which projects to support with European funding.”
The four short listed bids, are:
• Teesside Low Carbon Project: A Pre-combustion coal gasification project on Teesside, with storage in depleted oil field and saline aquifer.  A consortium led by Progressive Energy and involving GDF SUEZ, Premier Oil, and BOC.

• Captain Clean Energy Project: A proposal for a new 570MW, fully abated coal Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (pre-combustion) project in Grangemouth, Scotland with storage in offshore depleted gas fields.  Led by Summit Power, involving Petrofac (CO2 Deepstore), National Grid and Siemens.  

• Peterhead: A 340MW Post-combustion capture retrofitted to part of an existing 1180MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at Peterhead, Scotland. Led by Shell and SSE.
• White Rose Project: An Oxyfuel capture project at a proposed new 304MW fully abated supercritical coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire.  Led by Alstom and involving Drax, BOC and National Grid.

Following further decisions in the new year the Government expects that projects will undertake engineering studies before final decisions to build.  The precise timetable for this will be dependent on which projects are selected.