Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
05/18/12
IN DOE
The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory issued a funding opportunity announcement late last week soliciting bids for projects that are looking to develop deep subsurface monitoring sensor technologies for sequestered CO2. NETL said it is looking to fund four multi-year projects with $4 million total that will commercialize monitoring tools that could help ensure the secure geologic storage of CO2 in the subsurface. In particular, the lab said tools are needed that can withstand the harsh conditions found in the deep saline formations that are considered preferable for CO2 storage. “Project developers will be required to deploy monitoring tools which can determine the location of the CO2 plume, boundaries of elevated formation pressure, and monitor leaks around a well bore or natural feature such as a fault or fracture. In addition, projects will be faced with the challenge of minimizing the risk when new monitoring tools are integrated into project monitoring plans,” the FOA says. Most of the monitoring technologies currently in use were initially developed for the oil and gas industry, and not much has been developed specifically for long-term CO2 storage projects. NETL said it is accepting applications through June 18.
IN EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently proposed emissions performance standards for new fossil fuel-fired power plants could prevent 123 billion pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress. If finalized, the standards in their current form cap CO2 emissions at new plants at a rate of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MWh, roughly on par with the emissions of a new natural gas combined cycle unit. Crunching numbers from the Sierra Club, CAP said that if all 22 proposed new coal-fired power plants currently pending across the country get approved and are required to comply with the new rules, 123 billion pounds worth of emissions would be prevented, the equivalent of taking 11 million automobiles off the road annually, according to the group.
IN THE U.K.
At least 16 companies have “signaled their intention” to apply for funding from the United Kingdom’s recently-rebooted carbon capture and storage demonstration competition, the country’s energy ministry said. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a list earlier this week of the companies it says may lead a bid for funding in the coming months. The list includes technology providers like Air Liquide and Alstom as well as utilities like Summit Power and Progressive Energy. A DECC spokesman described the list as indicative in the “high level of interest” in the competition. Judging from the companies that appear on the list, all six U.K.-based entries for the European Union’s New Entrants Reserve (NER 300) CCS competition will likely apply for U.K. funding. Several new names appear on the list as well, including the Seattle-based Summit Power Group, which in March said it would be pitching a poly-generation pre-combustion capture project in Scotland called the Caledonia Clean Energy Project. DECC said it was publishing the list in order to prompt further discussions within the industry that could lead to collaborations between interested companies and suppliers.
