Late in the day: there is an appetite among investors for CCS projects, but too few installations are being built
If carbon capture and storage is to make the contribution to cutting European emissions is needed, the technology will have to be fitted to 100 power plants rated at 500MW by 2020. Time is running out, says Vic Wyman.
Come up with a project to grab carbon dioxide (CO2) at power stations and other plants, and stuff it underground to avoid it contributing to global warming, and capital providers will be keen to talk to you, according to Angela Whelan of the Ecofin Research Foundation.”They are very keen to be engaged,” said Whelan, chief executive of the climate change-focused Ecofin, when speaking at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) meeting in Brussels organised by Bellona Europa and Forum Europe. The foundation identified the interest in a survey of more than 30 capital providers.Whelan said: “There is a willingness to invest, if not a readiness,” and admitted she was surprised by the interest. CCS is unproven commercially, considered too costly without subsidies and at risk of being sidelined as stranded assets by potential changes in energy and environmental policies.
via CCS ‘on track but running late’ (Utility Week).
Does anyone else find it truly frightening that capital providers are willing to invest in pure subsidy farming? Even if there were a need for the service CCS provides the technology is unproven, horrendously expensive and commercially non-viable. Worse than that though is that the technology, even if perfected and made viable, could not achieve a meaningful difference in global mean temperature. It’s a whole lot of pain when we don’t even know if the world is too warm or not.
