The state of CCS: Are we losing ground in the market for green energy?

In 2006, for instance, CO2 produced from energy-related combustion accounted for 82% of all U.S. emissions.  Fossil fuels account for 85% of total power generated in the U.S. and over 90% in China.  Furthermore, coal, the “dirtiest” of fossil fuels, giving off the most CO2 per unit of energy, still generates 50% of electricity in the U.S. and 80% in China.  And with China’s economy growing at 9% in 2008 despite a global recession, the demand for fossil energy is on the rise.

A 2007 MIT report on the future of green energy states that: “Coal use will increase under any foreseeable scenario because it is cheap and abundant.”  Because both nations have enormous recoverable reserves (the U.S. has the largest in the world and China the third), and “because of the energy security benefits it provides each country…the United States and China share a uniquely common interest in devising strategies to allow them to continue their reliance on coal in a carbon-constrained world,” concludes a recent Pew report.  Therefore, the challenge is to develop technology that allows China and the U.S. to cut emissions while continuing to utilize coal as an important source of energy.  CCS may be the answer to that challenge.  What is CCS?  How far along is the technology?  Where does the U.S. stand?

 

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is an all-encompassing term for a number of technologies that can be used to capture and compress CO2 emitted from large point sources, such as power plants, and inject it into deep underground storage sites for indefinite isolation.  As China and the U.S. – the two largest economies, the two largest consumers of energy, and the two largest GHG emitters – seem incapable of weaning themselves off of fossil fuels in the foreseeable future, developing CCS is critical in combating climate change as it permits plants to cut emissions while still utilizing fossil resources.  CCS technology provides an essential bridge that mitigates emissions while economies transition to more “green” sources of power.

 

Models predict that CCS will mitigate between one and four gigatons of C02 annually by 2030.  The wide range of these predictions is due, in large part, to the unknown rate of technological advance.  As the World Resources Institute puts it, CCS is currently in a period of development known as the “valley of death:” it has been proven in the laboratory and on a small scale, but is not yet commercially viable.  Green energy is supposed to drive the economy for years to come, but in the early development of perhaps the most important carbon-mitigating technology, the U.S. is already lagging.

 

Large-scale demonstration projects are crucial to the commercialization of CCS.  Such projects are currently on-line in Germany, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, and even Algeria.  China is investing heavily in CCS technology and it has foreign partners.  British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced in May that the UK will share breakthrough CCS technologies with China per its Kyoto obligations, and the Chinese GreenGen project, which will inject one million tons of captured CO2 per year, is under construction.  As the World Resources Institute reports, “China is further along than many might expect.”  

 

The United States, on the other hand, currently has no complete CCS demonstration projects in operation; although, some early steps are being taken.  In 2003, President Bush announced FutureGen, a project to construct a near-zero emission coal plant using CCS technology, however, little progress was made and FutureGen simply guzzled its funding.  The Obama Administration revived the plan on July 14th, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus bill, allotted $2.4 billion to accelerate commercial deployment of CCS.  Another billion dollars may be allocated specifically to FutureGen.

 

The United States should not necessarily bemoan Chinese advances.  China is the world’s largest emitter and largest consumer of coal.  Cutting emissions from Chinese energy production is essential to combating climate change.  However, the race to develop new green technologies is driven not only by environmental imperative but economic incentive.  In giving ground on CCS, the U.S. may be losing key business opportunities at home and abroad.

 

Sources:

http://www.reason.com/news/show/126806.html

http://www.asiasociety.com/files/pdf/US_China_Roadmap_on_Climate_Change.pdf-

http://www.wri.org/stories/2009/07/first-hand-view-chinas-carbon-capture-and-storage-actions

http://www.nma.org/ccs/ccsprojects.asp

http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2009/05/05/archive/11?terms=uk+china+ccs

http://web.mit.edu/coal/The_Future_of_Coal.pdf

 

Joshua Roberts
Intern, CSIS Technology and Public Policy Program