A race you seriously do not want to win:
Companies in the U.S. and Canada are likely to beat European rivals in building the first large-scale project trapping carbon dioxide to sequester underground, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD), based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and SaskPower International Inc. of Canada are the closest to building a utility-sized carbon capture and storage plant, the London-based industry analyst said in a report today.
Carbon capture and storage is one of the most promising technologies to redirect emissions from burning fossil fuel. The International Energy Agency estimates 3,400 CCS plants are needed by 2050 to meet a goal to cut carbon emissions in half.
“It has been clear for years that if the world’s industrial and power generation sectors are not to see a large part of their asset base rendered obsolete, they need carbon capture and storage to work,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance Chief Executive Officer Michael Liebreich said in an e-mailed statement. “But not one large-scale, end-to-end project has yet been built, and the technologies still have to prove their cost- effectiveness.”
The top four sites in the semi-annual ranking of 24 demonstration projects worldwide are in North America. In fifth place as Europe’s most advanced is EON AG (EOAN)’s plan at the Maasvlakte coal-fired plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
All other European projects including one in northern England developed by 2Co Energy Ltd. depend on state or European Union funding, New Energy Finance said. Projects in the ranking must capture more than 1 million tons of CO2 a year.
I am of the opinion that this will be the definitive shark jump for the whole “CO2 is killing us” crew. Not so sad.
Next on the list should be cow poop capture! Now that is a big problem!
Nature has a long term storage system called rocks. Limestone, marlstone and the cement that holds some forms of sandstone are all carbon capture systems.