Oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) and U.K. power grid operator National Grid PLC (NGG) have joined a ScottishPower-led consortium bidding to gain government funding to create a carbon and capture storage coal-fired power station by 2014, the Scottish-based utility said Thursday.

ScottishPower, the U.K. arm of Spanish utility Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), has now set up a four-member consortium which includes Norwegian carbon dioxide removal specialists Aker Clean Carbon.

ScottishPower already has a carbon and capture pilot project running at its Longannet coal-fired power plant in Scotland. The new technology captures carbon emissions from the plant and pumps them underground for storage in areas including depleted oil and gas fields and underground salt caverns.

ScottishPower plans to retrofit about half of the plant's 600 megawatt production capacity with the new technology by 2014 it if succeeds in getting the government grant.

The technology would reduce Longannet's CO2 emissions by 90%, the company said.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com