News

Comprehensive support for carbon capture and storage in Australia

Government, industry and research organisations have collaborated on a landmark report to show the way forward for urgently required carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment in Australia.

According to CO2CRC CEO, Tania Constable, the report, ‘A Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage’, is critical to how reliable 24/7 clean energy can be deployed in Australia. “Power shortages over the past several months and patterns of constant high temperatures demonstrate over and over that renewables are not the cure-all to address affordable, 24/7 clean energy in Australia,” said Ms Constable.

Ms Constable welcomes renewables as part of a sensible energy mix that is clean, reliable and cost effective but doesn’t see room for a system where states run the risk of going without power during the hottest days of the year.

“We are the world’s largest exporter of coal, and yet we haven’t built a single advanced coal power plant with carbon capture and storage, which removes more than 90 percent of emissions,” said Ms Constable.

“We see real potential to retrofit some coal and gas power stations with CCS in Australia, and CO2CRC will release a costed report at the end of February that will examine retrofitting options.”

The upcoming report will supplement the 2015 Australian Power Generation Technology Report.

The ‘Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage’ was led by the University of Queensland and involved a steering committee comprising the Commonwealth Government, NSW Government, CSIRO, CO2CRC Limited, ACALET (COAL21 Fund) and ANLEC R&D.

Key snapshots from the roadmap include:

• CCS must be available on its merits in Australia’s energy mix to assure energy system security and affordability so that future emissions reductions targets are delivered at the lowest economic cost.
• ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s mandate should be opened-up to include a range of carbon reduction technologies including carbon capture and storage.
• CCS is required in the power sector (coal and gas generation) but will also play a vital role in decarbonising energy intensive industries, which unavoidably involve the continued use of fossil fuels.
• CCS is not an experimental technology. It is being deployed or available now at commercial scale to provide a competitive, carbon reduction option for reliable 24-7 power from fossil fuels.
• CCS development, integration and a focus on cost reduction is ongoing, including opportunities to decarbonise a number of existing and prospective emissions-intensive industries including natural gas and LNG production, iron and steel making, cement production, fertilisers, chemicals and textiles.

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To speak with Tania Constable contact: Robert Hilkes, CO2CRC media, 0413 338 144, robert.hilkes@co2crc.com.au

View the reports here.

About CO2CRC Limited

CO2CRC operates arguably the world’s best carbon storage research facility with more than $100m invested in understanding how carbon dioxide (CO₂) behaves underground over the past decade.  Through to 2020 a further $41m will be dedicated to fast-tracking storage research with the purpose of reducing the cost of CO₂ monitoring work by tens to hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of a commercial carbon capture and storage program.