Drax,Alstom pick co-developer for 426-MW CCS project

LONDON Jan 24 (Reuters) - British power producer Drax and France's Alstom have picked equipment supplier BOC to co-develop their 426-megawatt (MW) carbon-capture and storage project in North Yorkshire, northern England, the companies said on Tuesday.

The project may be eligible for European Union funding, after the UK's energy ministry submitted in May seven CCS and five high-tech renewable energy projects to the European Investment Bank for consideration.

Drax and Alstom plan to apply for further funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change's separate CCS funding scheme, designed to cover costs for four projects of up to 9.5 billion pounds, the two firms said in a statement.

Britain's energy network operator National Grid will develop the infrastructure to transport carbon emitted from the plant out to the southern North Sea, where it will be stored.

Drax's coal-fired power station is one of Europe's biggest carbon emitting plants.

CCS is still a commercially unproven technology but is widely seen as a key mechanism to fight climate change by burying greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining large power plant capacity.