Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
2/13/2015
The deployment of bioenergy carbon capture and storage could offset emissions from gas and coal burning electric plants, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, the results of which were published In the journal Nature Climate Change this week. The study finds that with the use of bio-CCS, it is possible to for the state of California to exceed their current emissions reduction goal of 80 percent by 2050, according to a UC Berkeley release. “BECCS, combined with aggressive renewable deployment and fossil-fuel emission reductions, can enable a carbon-negative power system in western North America by 2050 with up to 145% emissions reduction from 1990 levels. In most scenarios, the offsets produced by BECCS are found to be more valuable to the power system than the electricity it provides. Advanced biomass power generation employs similar system design to advanced coal technology, enabling a transition strategy to low-carbon energy,” the report says.
That result, according to the study, is achievable with only 7 percent of the region’s power coming from bio-CCS, though there would have to be an increase in renewables as well. The model also hinges on an eventual commercial viability of CCS technology, according to the release. “We’re evaluating a technology with some uncertainty behind it, but we are saying that if the technology exists, it really sketches out a different kind of climate mitigation pathway than what people are assuming,” study leader Daniel Sanchez, a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, said in the release.
