Report: Carbon Price Needs to Be at $40 for Commercial CCS
Katie Fehrenbacher - clean power
This morning carbon futures are trading around €13 ($18.75), not even reaching half of what ABI says is needed for a commercial CCS. So, if the carbon markets hover around this price, CCS won’t be moving into commercialization anytime soon, as many have predicted.
The ABI report is interesting in that it predicts that CCS and the carbon emissions trading markets will be closely linked going forward as carbon credits will be created as carbon from CCS is stored. Pike Research has predicted the same thing. And that really means that CCS won’t be economical for power producers without that externality — also not a good sign for CCS.
Pike Research has pointed out that CCS will hike up the cost of producing electricity at power plants by 50-70 percent (based on today's costs and capabilities). Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said that CCS technology today would increase the cost of generating power from coal by about 80 percent and that it would need to get to a 20-25 percent premium to be "tolerable."
That’s why many are pretty bearish on CCS. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has likened the current state of CCS technology to a half-baked web tool in need of debugging.
Still with the U.S. government making a significant investment in the tech through the stimulus package, the technology will have to move forward, at least a little bit. The Obama administration's Recovery Act included $3.4 billion for CCS-related projects, and the EU plans to spend $535 million on CCS and clean coal technology through 2013. Australia, Canada and Norway have said each will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the industry in the coming years. The ABI report says that between 2009 and 2014, $14.6 billion will be invested in 73 new CCS projects that will sequester 146 million tons of CO2.
A report by Emerging Energy Research published in February found that CCS technology could be ready for commercialization as early as 2016 if demonstration projects go well and governments provide sufficient funding.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Arnold Paul
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Meet Qinetiq: A British defense technology company, Qinetiq, is testing a new type of lithium-ion battery based on lithium-ion iron-sulfide chemistry for hybrids and electric vehicles that could be substantially cheaper and more powerful than existing batteries. — Technology Review
Tioga, SunDurance Bag NJ Solar Schools Project: Tioga Energy and SunDurance Energy today announced they have been selected as a team by the Morris County officials to develop, install, own, and operate 3.2 MW of solar power systems on 19 Morris County school buildings and county government facilities in 2010. The companies say the project will save the county an estimated 2 million or more in energy costs. — Press Release
Ford to Test Transit Connect, Electric Focus in Germany: University researchers and customers selected by Ford are slated to begin a 2-year test today of 25 all-electric Ford Transit Connect vans and Focus compact sedans in the Cologne area. — Edmunds Green Car Advisor
Did We Just Emerge from the Ethanol Decade?: “Whatever else happened these last 10 years, not many groups would call the time ‘the era when biofuels such as ethanol came of age.’ But this is exactly the phrase that the Renewable Fuels Association uses to describe the Noughties.” — Autoblog Green
Detangling COP15: When world leaders departed the UN climate talks in Copenhagen last month, “they left behind a vast legal tangle,” including edicts dealing with verifying carbon emission cuts to mobilizing billions of dollars for poor nations that require formal enactment rulings. — ClimateWire via NYT
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment