Prospect union, which has 24,000 energy specialists working in generation, distribution and transmission, was responding to today’s National Audit Office report into the government’s CCS competition.

The competition, which started in 2012, was the government’s second attempt to support schemes that capture pollution from power stations or industry and store it underground.

Prospect negotiator Michael Macdonald said: “Given the potential cost benefits, our members support further investment in carbon capture and storage to demonstrate the feasibility of this technology and its commercial application.

“While CCS is not the only solution, thermal generation could complement baseload nuclear new build and volatile renewables.

“Existing coal and gas plant is running hard today because the wind is not blowing. That’s why there is a strong case for CCS to make baseload generation more environmentally friendly. It would also provide economic benefits for UK industry, said Macdonald.

“Reviving a clean coal project in Yorkshire would help economic regeneration, retain scarce generation engineering skills and give Britain the opportunity to profit from the development of new CCS power stations across the globe.”

The first competition had two preferred bidders: the White Rose consortium in North Yorkshire which planned to build a new coal plant with the technology; and Shell's scheme in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, to fit CCS to an existing gas plant operated by Scottish and Southern Energy.

The NAO report warned that it is “currently inconceivable” that CCS projects would be developed without government support, but the second competition did not achieve value for money.