I was at a very interesting meeting this morning, entitled “Next Steps for Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK”, hosted by the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum :-
https://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/forums/event.php?eid=713
https://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/forums/agenda/CCS-2014-agenda.pdf
During the proceedings, there were liberal doses of hints at that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is about to freeze the Carbon Price Floor – the central functioning carbon pricing policy in the UK (since the EU Emissions Trading Scheme “isn’t working”).
All of the more expensive low carbon energy technologies rely on a progressively heavier price for carbon emissions to make their solutions more attractive.
Where does this leave the prospects for Carbon Capture and Storage in the 2030s ? Initial technology-launching subsidies will have been dropped, and the Contracts for Difference will have been ground down into obscurity. So how will CCS keep afloat ? It’s always going to remain more expensive than other technology options to prevent atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions, so it needs some prop.
What CCS needs is some Added Value. It will come partly from EOR – Enhanced Oil Recovery, as pumping carbon dioxide down depleting oil and gas fields will help stimulate a few percent of extra production.
But what will really make the difference is using carbon dioxide to make new fuel. That’s the wonder of Renewable Gas – it will be able to provide a valued product for capturing carbon dioxide.
This wasn’t talked about this morning. The paradigm is still “filter out the CO2 and flush it down a hole”. But it won’t stay that way forever. Sooner or later, somebody’s going to start mining carbon dioxide from CCS projects to make new chemicals and gas fuels. Then, who cares if there’s negative charging for emissions ? Or at what price ? The return on investment in carbon capture will simply bypass assumptions about needing to create a carbon market or set a carbon tax.
One reply on “The General Lightness of Carbon Pricing”
CCS is obviously dead. The only way it would have worked is if the pipeline and well head infrastructure was being made ready.
There is also a good deal of rubbish talked about in using CO2 fro EOR. CO2 has no special advantages for for conventional gas drive of hard to get at oil.
CO2 EOR comes into its own when injected into the formation to reduced oil viscosity.This allows the oil to flow more easily to the wells.
This technique requres a large number of injection points, something which is not practical in the North Sea. Also much of the CO2 is brought up with the oil and realeased back to the atmosphere.