Dr. Brian Ó Gallachóir:

We have. While essentially it is a work in progress, we have been considering its use. Some recent natural gas-fired power stations have been built in the Cork Harbour area, which would have a high efficiency relative to many of the power plants on the system. The idea would be to take the carbon dioxide from them, capture it and pump it into the Kinsale gas field. The Kinsale gas field is composed of different parts and we are considering precisely the issue raised by the Deputy, namely, the scale in terms of the number of years for which we could do that. In addition, we are considering what are the associated engineering challenges as obviously, one would wish to make sure that if it is stored there, it does not seep out and actually is sequestered. Consequently, it is very much a work in progress but essentially is to try to address this question as to what in the power system, if wind energy is there, will complement it in the future. Natural gas carbon capture and storage, CCS, is one option. Biomass of course is another but this brings one back to the land-use question. Should we use biomass for power generation, for heat or for transport? How much land should be allocated for biomass and if there is a constraint on land use, what is the most effective way of using that biomass? We are considering a number of options and in our model at present, we do not have biomass CCS as a technology because coal CCS and natural gas CCS are at much more developed, albeit stalled, stage of development. However, biomass CCS would give us the prospect of having negative emissions, which would be a very nice scenario towards which to move.