Commercial scale carbon capture and storage technology is immature and expensive, but even without establishing new technologies, these issues can be overcome, according to a report out Tuesday by the United Kingdom’s Energy Technology Institute. “Our analysis strongly suggests that risk reduction through sequential deployments of existing technology in the UK can drive output energy costs down by as much as 45%, largely through a combination of increased scale, infrastructure sharing and reductions in financing costs,” the report says.
The report explains that deploying at least full-scale plants demonstrating existing technologies sequentially will pave the way for the introduction of higher risk emerging technologies, leading to an eventual evolution of the technology in a cost effective manner. “Breakthrough technologies, whilst potentially game-changing, are expected to take a number of years before they can be demonstrated at scale and are best placed to enter the market once the overall risk involved in CCS is reduced,” according to the report.
