As emissions reductions and climate change mitigation have moved the the forefront of the US political debate, both the Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency have shone a light on the potential and the importance of working with traditional fossil fuels, rather than pushing to phase them out.
The International Energy Agency’s 2013 Technology Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage, released last week, highlighted the importance of the advancement of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in a drive to reduce emissions and mitigate global average temperature increases.
“As long as fossil fuels and carbon-intensive industries play dominant roles in our economies, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will remain a critical greenhouse gas reduction solution,” said the IEA.
The US Department of Energy seems to be thinking along similar lines. The DOE has issued a draft loan guarantee solicitation announcement to provide $8 bln in loan guarantees” to finance projects and facilities located in the United States that employ innovative and advanced fossil energy technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases”.
Eligible projects for loan guarantees include carbon capture and sequestration, efficiency improvements, and a variety of improved or advanced technologies that either develop or use fossil fuels in such a way as to reduce emissions from the process. The draft proposal was released a few days after President Obama outlined a Climate Action Plan in a speech at Georgetown University.
But the CCS rate must rise dramatically to limit long-term global average temperature increases to two degrees Celsius, with accumulated carbon dioxide captured and stored totaling around 120 gigatons between 2015 and 2050, according to the IEA. This entails captured and stored volumes rising to 50 megatons per year by 2020, 2,000 Mt/year by 2030, and 7,000 Mt/year by 2050.
But a frequent criticism of calls for more CCS is that it is not yet viable on a large scale. And the IEA has acknowledged that there are hurdles to overcome.
“The individual component technologies required for capture, transport and storage are generally well-understood and, in some cases, technologically mature,” but “the largest challenge for CCS deployment is the integration of component technologies into large-scale demonstration projects”, the agency said.
The IEA’s recommendations for improving prospects for widespread CCS deployment include regulatory frameworks and incentives that will encourage its further development. You can read the full report here.
