The carbon capture and storage industry moves into a new phase this week with the inauguration on 2 October of the world's first commercial-scale project, a C$1.4bn retrofit of SaskPower's Boundary Dam 110 MW coal-fired power plant in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The captured CO2 will be sent through a pipeline to be stored three kilometres underground. The system first came online in September and is expected to reduce the plant's emissions by around 90 %, about one million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
The significance of the plant is in pointing the way to a method by which the continued burning of fossil fuels can be safely contemplated. International Energy Agency analysis suggests that without CCS, two-thirds of current proven fossil-fuel reserves cannot be commercialised before 2050 if increases in global temperatures are to remain below 2C. It has warned that meeting global climate goals will be 70 % more expensive without the development and deployment of CCS technology.
Not everyone agrees with the IEA assessment. CCS is expensive and its opponents insist that the technology remains unproven at scale, is yet to answer questions about its cost-effectiveness, and risks diverting resources away from other more deserving low carbon renewables projects. There are also concerns that in some cases CCS projects will fail to curb emissions as the captured CO2 will be used to access otherwise unreachable oil reserves in depleted fields, and afterwards allowed to leak back to atmosphere. Some of the CO2 captured at Boundary Dam will be used for this oil recovery practice.
The IEA welcomed the launch, calling it a historic milestone along the road to a low-carbon energy future. IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven said the launch represents "a momentous point" in the history of the development of CCS. She added: "CCS is the only known technology that will enable us to continue to use fossil fuels and also de-carbonise the energy sector. As fossil fuel consumption is expected to continue for decades, deployment of CCS is essential."
She also commended Canada's role in making the project a reality: "Getting Boundary Dam up and running is a great example of how Canada is a leader in CCS," she said. "The experience from this project will be critically important. I wish the plant operator every success in showing the world that large-scale capture of CO2 from a power station is indeed not science fiction, but today's reality."
The IEA believes CCS will have to play a central role in an ambitious, climate-friendly future energy scenario, accounting for one-sixth of required emissions reductions by 2050. Several CCS projects are under construction or in advanced stages of planning. Early 2015 should see the start of operations for another large power-CCS project in Kemper County, Mississippi. Further projects are currently under construction elsewhere in the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
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