Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Email

Republish This Article

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You are free to republish this piece both online and in print, and we encourage you to do so with the embed code provided below. We only ask that you follow a few basic guidelines.  

The realistic costs of carbon capture

by Leighton Walter Kille, The Journalist's Resource
October 29, 2009

<h1>The realistic costs of carbon capture</h1> <p class="byline">by Leighton Walter Kille, The Journalist's Resource <br />October 29, 2009</p> <p>Coal currently provides more than half the United States' electricity. Because burning a single ton of coal can create more than two tons of CO₂, a primary contributor to climate change, a technique known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) is under development.</p> <p>If CCS makes coal-generated electricity more expensive than that of other technologies, incentive to adopt it would be reduced. A study by the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, <a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19185/realistic_costs_of_carbon_capture.html">"Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture,"</a> is a good resource for stories on CCS. The study concludes that:</p> <ul> <li>For a first-generation facility, the cost of abatement would be $100 to $150 per ton of CO2 avoided, excluding the cost of transportation and storage.</li> <li>Carbon capture and storage would add approximately 8 to 12 cents per kilowatt hour to the cost of coal-generated electricity, effectively doubling its cost.</li> <li>When carbon-capture technology is mature, costs could decline to $30 to $50 per ton of CO2 avoided, adding 2 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour to the cost of coal-generated electricity.</li> </ul> <p>The cost premium for generating low-carbon electricity from coal with CCS would be similar to that for generating low-carbon electricity by other means, and higher than certain renewables such as onshore wind.</p> <p><em>Image of proposed Futuregen facility courtesy of the U. S. Department of Energy. Tags: carbon, carbon sequestration, carbon capture, coal, emissions, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, mining, pollution.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://journalistsresource.org/environment/cost-of-carbon-capture/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://journalistsresource.org&quot;&gt;The Journalist&#039;s Resource&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.&lt;img src=&quot;https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

1

Coal currently provides more than half the United States’ electricity. Because burning a single ton of coal can create more than two tons of CO₂, a primary contributor to climate change, a technique known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) is under development.

If CCS makes coal-generated electricity more expensive than that of other technologies, incentive to adopt it would be reduced. A study by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, “Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture,” is a good resource for stories on CCS. The study concludes that:

• For a first-generation facility, the cost of abatement would be $100 to $150 per ton of CO2 avoided, excluding the cost of transportation and storage.
• Carbon capture and storage would add approximately 8 to 12 cents per kilowatt hour to the cost of coal-generated electricity, effectively doubling its cost.
• When carbon-capture technology is mature, costs could decline to $30 to $50 per ton of CO2 avoided, adding 2 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour to the cost of coal-generated electricity.

The cost premium for generating low-carbon electricity from coal with CCS would be similar to that for generating low-carbon electricity by other means, and higher than certain renewables such as onshore wind.

Image of proposed Futuregen facility courtesy of the U. S. Department of Energy. Tags: carbon, carbon sequestration, carbon capture, coal, emissions, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, mining, pollution.