Weâre facing an unexpected global economic slump thanks to the coronavirus sweeping across the world. In response, governments everywhere are tabling stimulus packages to get us through what is a temporary but severe drop in economic activity. That stimulus could be used, as it usually is, to get us back on the same path. But it should be used to steer us further and faster onto the new path of clean energy, says Fatih Birol, Executive Director … [Read more...]
How underground CCS works: low leakage risk, 2%
Itâs not just the high upfront costs and the absence of a profitable business model thatâs stalling the take-off of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). There are fears that CO2 stored underground will leak over the thousands of years it needs to be sequestered. The companies that put it there will be long gone. If you arenât around to take the blame and pay the penalty, why bother doing it properly? Stephanie Flude at Oxford University and Juan … [Read more...]
Germany must put CCS back on the table, says Merkel
Carbon Capture has not been popular in Germany. The public are largely opposed, political parties are split, and Federal States are not approving new projects. Germany has only four operations, and only one has injected anything (not much) into the ground. Now Chancellor Merkel wants it back on the table, along with a public debate. Julian Wettengel at Clean Energy Wire runs through the reasons for the opposition (an excuse to keep coal plants … [Read more...]
Norwayâs âNorthern Lightsâ project: creating the CCS business model
Northern Lights, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project backed by the Norwegian government, is drilling test wells in the North Sea to find suitable places to store CO2. Project partners include Shell and Total, and others are joining them. CO2 will be shipped to an onshore terminal from which it is piped to the subsea wells. Once established, the plan is for other European countries to send their CO2 too. The project will also create the … [Read more...]
10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness
We need to understand carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) better. To do so, this article looks at 10 methods and estimates how much CO2 each will take out of the atmosphere by 2050, and the cost per tonne. In their list the authors, Ella Adlen and Cameron Hepburn at the University of Oxford, cover the industrial (e.g. CO2-EOR, synfuels) to the biological (e.g. forestry, soil carbon sequestration). They say there are six that can be … [Read more...]
An independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050 (part 4 of 5): Nuclear, biomass and CCS
Schalk Cloete is creating his own 5-part independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050, to compare with the next IEA World Energy Outlook, due in November. To make his predictions he has created simulations of cost-optimal technology mixes and made his own assumptions over the drivers that will affect them: policy, technological progress, demand growth and behavioural change are all included. If nuclear, biomass and CCS take off they will … [Read more...]
DNV-GL: energyâs shrinking share of growing global GDP shows how we can afford Transition
At the current rate of progress higher energy efficiency, more renewables, and carbon capture will not be enough to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2°C. So to point the way, DNV-GL has condensed its Energy Transition Outlook 2019 into 10 ways technology can meet the COP21 targets. This article gives figures on how much solar and wind we really need, battery production, annual investment in grids, and energy efficiency. It further … [Read more...]
Extract CO2 from our air, use it to create synthetic fuels
Carbon Capture needs to take off, but nobody knows how itâs going to happen. We need innovation, scrutinised, tested and funded. Jim Conca looks at a method of extracting CO2 directly from the air thatâs being pioneered by Carbon Engineering in Canada, backed by private investors and government agencies. It grew out of academic work at the University of Calgary and Carnegie Mellon University. Itâs âDirect Air Captureâ system can remove a ton of … [Read more...]
Can other technologies replicate Solar PV price reductions?
Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business reviews the new book âHow Solar Energy Became Cheapâ by Greg Nemet. It traces Solar PVâs history from Bell Labs in 1954 through to the present. The phenomenal price drops mean todayâs cost/kWh is 1,000 times lower than in the 1970s. The analysis is split into four epochs when output was dominated by US, Japanese, then German and finally Chinese production. How much were improvements thanks to sheer … [Read more...]
An independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050, to compare with the IEAâs WEO 2019
Schalk Cloete is creating his own Global Energy Forecast to 2050. He wants to see how his own independent analysis will match up with the next IEA World Energy Outlook, due in November. And so do we. Rich with data, his major predictions include a global policy shift from technology-forcing to technology-neutrality shortly before 2030, driven by growing worldwide acceptance of the severity of climate change. The exhaustion of the 1.5°C and, … [Read more...]
Why coordinated Dutch-German climate action is critical for Europe
Both the Netherlands and Germany are about to propose major new national climate measures. If the proposals become law, they will enforce some of the most stringent national targets for GHG reductions in the world. Itâs why, on 22 August, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will host a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her âclimate cabinetâ. Coordinated Dutch-German climate action can make these neighbouring countries role models for … [Read more...]
China’s coal needs Carbon Capture. Can U.S. knowledge help?
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, carbon capture and storage (CCS) plays a crucial role. We still live in a world where coal (mainly in developing countries) and gas (almost everywhere) continues to power growing economies. But the pipeline of new large-scale CCS facilities is nowhere close to what we need: around a hundred new units every year between 2020 and 2040, according to the Global CCS Institute. A report by the IFRI Centre for Energy … [Read more...]
A cheap Carbon Capture breakthrough? MOF molecular cages that trap CO2
Carbon Capture is the Transitionâs great unknown. Big targets have been set but nobody knows how weâre going to meet them. It's clear we need utility-scale breakthroughs, and fast. And cheap. We take a look at one example of cutting edge research that could deliver both. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energyâs SLAC Laboratory and Stanford University have taken the first images of CO2 molecules captured within a highly porous nanoparticle … [Read more...]
Time for tech-neutral incentives if renewables growth wonât stop climate change?
In 2018 energy use grew 2.9% and emissions 2%. That means renewables are not keeping up with energyâs growth: it will need a four-fold increase in wind and solarâs growth to do so, says Schalk Cloete. Thereâs more: to cut global CO2 emissions by the 3% per year we need to meet the Paris goals wind and solar growth rates must increase by over an order of magnitude. He reviews the evidence and concludes that current technology-forcing policies â … [Read more...]
IEEFA: IEAâs Sustainable Development Scenario is not enough
The IEAâs Sustainable Development Scenario (SDS) â if itâs followed - sees the world limiting the temperature rise to below 2°C. Even if we stick to the plan the SDS gives us only a 50% chance of success. Tim Buckley at IEEFA says those odds are not good enough. Worse, the SDS depends on carbon capture and storage (CCS) achieving commercialisation at scale by 2030. The author explains why he thinks thatâs unrealistic, and calls for the IEA to … [Read more...]
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