News

Clean Coal Group List Suggests More Than $1 Billion Being Spent on CCS R&D

Nearly a 100 projects around the world—with more than 80 of them in the U.S.—are assessing various aspects of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a database released last week by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) shows.

Some of the projects are actual commercial-scale carbon dioxide storage projects. A few demonstrate commercial use of available carbon capture technologies. The majority represent ongoing research into CCS techniques that are required for broad commercial deployment in conjunctions with coal-based generation.

“Over the last 30 years, the coal-based electricity sector has invested more than $50 billion in technologies to reduce traditional emissions regulated by federal and state clean air act laws. Now we’re seeking to expand what we’ve learned in that process to effectively guide and jump-start efforts to develop and deploy technologies that capture, transport, and safely store CO2,” said Joe Lucas, senior vice president for ACCCE.

Lucas stressed that the list released is merely representative. It includes projects that are easily identified because of government cost-sharing or other publicly available documentation. What it is unable to identify are those proprietary projects and technologies that do not receive government funding and will not be announced until they are ready for public demonstration.

He also said that the level of industry funding for these projects—which outweighs government investment—clearly demonstrates that the private sector is doing its fair share to bring carbon capture and storage technologies to the marketplace.

“Obviously, the research, demonstration, and deployment of such new technologies is not going to be cheap. The projects on this list alone represent an investment of over $1 billion,” said Lucas.

Source: ACCCE

SHARE this article