The government has made commitments to remove carbon from the UK’s electricity production by 2035 and to that end has invested heavily in on and off shore wind farms. the question still remains, how do we generate power, if we are experiencing the wrong type of weather? Issues with the cold and sometimes lack of wind, means other more versatile solutions must be found.

The next step in carbon reduction will be carbon capture plants. A new type of power plant that either re-uses or stores the CO2 it creates in underground stores or, old oil and gas reservoirs under the north sea. It can even be stored in permeable rocks known as saline aquifers.

At present there is only one such power plant in the world, a coal plant in Canada at the Boundary Dam. There are 29 other carbon capture facilities but they carry out carbon intensive activities such as fertilizer production or natural gas processing. Some of these facilities are even able to re-use the carbon stored for other processes, thus cutting emissions even further.

It is uncertain where such a plant would be built in the UK, though there are three proposals on the table at the moment, one in North Lincolnshire and two near Redcar on Teesside.