Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
7/18/2014
With fossil fuels set to continue to play a large role in energy production for the foreseeable future, the development of carbon capture utilization and storage technology is vital to meeting global climate change abatement goals, International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven told GHG Monitor on the sidelines of this week’s U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Energy Conference, held in Washington. “Some people think that CCS is only interesting to fossil fuels because it will extend the life of fossil fuels in energy production. Well, maybe that’s the case, that’s true, but let’s be frank; fossil fuels will be part of our energy system for many decades to come,” she said. “You have two routes to go. Either you do it without climate abatement, without CCS, or you do it with but it’s an illusion to think that in the same amount of time, the whole world will be energized by wind and solar and other renewables, that’s just not enough for many decades to come.”
Progress has been made on CCS, van der Hoeven said, noting several projects meeting milestones recently and in the near future. SaskPower’s Boundary Dam project in Saskatchewan is scheduled to being full operation in October and Mississippi Power’s Kemper County project, after facing several delays, should be on-line next year. While this progress is promising, more must be done. “These are very encouraging signs,” van der Hoeven said, “but we need at least 10 of these projects to overcome the barriers that are still there and to see to it that developments can speed up so that you can decrease costs because that’s very important.”
Cooperation Needed to Drive CCS Development
The development of CCS technology falls on several entities which must work together, van der Hoeven said. “There are a couple of things that I think really need to be done. You need to have a business case for CCS, of course that is about investments and it’s about policy so that’s something that governments could do. The other thing is that we have to drive cost reductions through the further deployment of technology. Then there is investment in transport and storage infrastructure that de-risk D&D projects,” she said. “It’s not one actor. It’s not one entity that needs to act. It’s a combination of a couple of things, government, technology, investors and companies themselves.”
The basis of a business case for CCS exists already in the use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. “What strikes me, is that there is a lot of CO2 being used in enhanced oil recovery in the United States but they do not use the CO2 they produce for enhanced oil recovery,” van der Hoeven said. “They use the CO2 they drill so that’s a bit strange isn’t it? So, I think that the business case is already there.”
A trigger is needed to jump-start cooperative efforts, van der Hoeven said. That trigger could come during U.N. climate talks scheduled to be held in Paris next year. “It would be of extreme importance to have something like an agreement on CO2 emissions in Paris because that would be very helpful and would encourage all of the stakeholders to move. At this moment what we can see is that the stakeholders don’t move together and some of them move slowly and some of them wait and see. You need to have an external entity to make them move together,” she said.
U.S. Must Take Leadership Role, EPA Regs. on The Right Track
In her remarks at this week’s conference, van der Hoeven said that recently proposed regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency which aim to cut CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants serve as a useful national and global signal that the United States will be a leader in the CCS field. While the IEA supports these regulations, they have proven controversial nationally, with opponents referring to them as a front in the “war on coal” and stating that even if the goals laid out in the regulations were to be reached, they would have little global effect. “It is our view that implementing the EPA rule can be achieved without damaging economic growth and while maintaining or even improving energy security,” van der Hoeven said,. “Crucially it also sends a very clear signal to the international community ahead of the make-or-break climate talks in Paris next year. However it is also clear that the EPA rule alone is not compatible with minimizing the global temperature rise to 2 degree Celsius. It is a very important first step but it has to be followed by other steps, by further steps.”
While reducing emissions in the U.S. alone will have little quantitative effect on global climate change, taking steps forward will have a qualitative effect, van der Hoeven said. “You’re living in a world that’s huge and whatever happens here will have its consequences over there,” she said. “If you want to make a change, if you really want to make a difference you have to be working on that and not wait and see.” The United States itself is a huge emitter of CO2, van der Hoeven noted, and should be working with other countries to address this issue. “A country like the United States, with its huge economy next to China and having been a huge emitter of CO2, should also be leading together with China in this project of CCS.”
U.S. Cannot Rely Solely on Natural Gas
Speaking to the conference, van der Hoeven warned against being too optimistic about national energy security in regards to the natural gas boom saying that while the United States is fortunate to have an abundance of the resource, the nation must develop a diverse and sustainable energy system, noting that CCS will be necessary for natural gas plants as well. “Many would say more gas is good for the climate, especially when it pushes out coal. Let me be clear, gas may be the cleanest of fossil fuels, but it’s still a fossil. It’s a bridge to a cleaner future, definitely, but the wide spread use of gas without emissions abatement, without CCS, would leave us at the end with no chance of meeting our 2 degree climate goal.”
Further, she cautioned the U.S. not to depend too heavily on gas. “Energy security really requires diversity. You do not want too many of your eggs in the same basket. Just an example, six months ago your country was gripped by one of the most brutal winters in recent memory. … If your energy system had relied only on gas at the time of the polar vortex, the additional heating demand would have meant there was not enough gas for the power system and the system would have failed. Coal, nuclear and wind were all essential for keeping the lights on.”
