Widespread carbon capture and storage cost effective in ten years

An Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) established by US President Barack Obama has delivered a series of recommendations on how to overcome barriers to the "widespread, cost-effective deployment of CSS within ten years."

Co-chaired by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DoE) the report comes to the conclusion that, while CCS can play a central role in the mitigation of domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it also faces a key barrier in the lack of a price on carbon.

The report states, "Without a carbon price and appropriate financial incentives for new technologies, there is no stable framework for investment in low-carbon technologies such as CCS."

In February earlier this year, President Obama directed the Task Force to propose a plan to bring 5 to ten commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. Steven Chu, the current US Secretary of Energy, explains why he thinks this move is necessary, "This is an aggressive goal, but the climate change problem compels us to act with fierce urgency."

The US has already made the largest investments in carbon capture and storage of any nation, according to the DoE, and these investments are being matched by private capital. Close to $4 billion of federal funds alongside $7 billion of private investment are currently being spent on several demonstration projects which the DoE believes will help to introduce the widespread deployment of advanced CCS technologies within a decade. The EPA, in turn, are continuing the clarification of existing regulations with the intention of reducing uncertainty for early projects and ensuring safe and effective deployment.

The report, which received input from 14 federal agencies and departments as well as CCS experts, concerns itself with the potential positives of CSS adoption as well as any existing financial, economic or technological barriers.

It found that, while there were no 'insurmountable' barriers to CCS deployment, a concrete carbon price would prove vital if deployment was to be both widespread and cost-effective. Federal co-ordination should also be strengthened, according to the report, together with the possible adoption of a federal agency roundtable and expert committee.

Additional recommendations included the setting up of an effort by DoE and EPA to track the regulatory implementation for early CCS demonstration projects and assess the need for any statutory revisions.

The efficacy of carbon capture and storage has been the subject of much debate. In 2008, Al Gore denounced CCS as "too imaginary to make a difference." Similarly, Greenpeace considers it a "dangerous distraction". However, the 2005 IPCC Special report on CCS stated,

"With greenhouse gas emission limits imposed, many integrated assessment analyses indicate that CCS systems will be competitive with other large-scale mitigation options, such as nuclear power and renewable energy technologies".

If CCS deployment is to be both widespread and cost-effective, carbon-capture technology needs to be available on the commercial market at economically viable prices. There also needs to be specific frameworks and policies put in place that support national CCS usage. The report states, "Wide scale cost-effective deployment of CCS will occur only when driven by a policy designed to reduce GHG emissions."

 

Author: Tom Watts | Climate Action

Images: Senor Codo | Flickr