Moniz Announces CO2 Storage Network Initiative

Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/13/2015

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz late last week announced the creation of a new international collaborative network focused on research and development of carbon saline storage technologies. The network, announced at the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will “form a global network of large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) injection sites that can share best practices, operational experience, and key lessons to advance the deployment of CCS,” according to a Department of Energy press release.

The new network will build on the success of the similar CO2 Capture Test Center Network, a growing system of collaborative CO2 capture test sites around the world. The capture center network has been headed by Norway, home of the Technology Center Mongstad (TCM) CO2 capture test center, since 2013. The U.S. will take over as chair of that initiative next year, according to the release.

The CSLF is a minister-level international climate change initiative focused on supporting the deployment of CCS globally, the release says. Ministers present at the CSLF, including Moniz and the energy ministers of Saudi Arabia, Romania, and Serbia, also released a communiqué following the event, highlighting the importance of CCS in efforts to limit global temperature rise. The ministers announced eight “key actions” they will take to support CCS. They will:

1. advocate for clean energy policies that support CCS alongside other clean energy technologies, such as renewable energy and efficiency measures;
2. continue to foster international collaboration aimed at advancing development and deployment of large-scale projects that demonstrate CCS technologies;
3. commit to coordinated global efforts to deploy CCS projects and build technical and regulatory capacity around the world;
4. create opportunities and remove barriers for private sector investment to advance CCS and spark innovation;
5. give CCS fair consideration in clean energy policies and resource commitments, while also supporting development of comprehensive CCS policy frameworks;
6. support industrial CCS applications as a pathway to implement substantial, scalable CCS pilot plants;
7. encourage early stage exploration and development of common user storage and transport infrastructure; and
8. continue to explore the potential of CO2 utilization technology to accelerate the deployment and technology maturation of carbon capture.

“Our common goal is to ensure that the conditions are right for all CCS projects currently under construction or in advanced stages of planning to be completed. We must increase the number of new large CCS demonstrations by 2020, and support the development of the next generation technology for full-scale demonstration in the 2020s,” the ministers wrote.