New Ways to Improve Energy and Environmental Security
Posted September 22, 2008 at 1:02 pm 
Filed in: According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2007 World Energy Outlook, global coal demand is set to increase by more than 70 percent over roughly the next two decades. Three-fourths of the growth will occur in India and China, but the U.S. will remain one of the largest coal consumers in the world. So, too, will many European nations—perhaps even more so as they seek reliable alternatives to Russian natural gas for electricity generation.
Because it is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, however, the projected importance of coal in the world economy may sharply contrast with other policy priorities, climate change mitigation in particular. This tension between energy security and environmental sustainability can be found throughout energy policy today. There are few energy sources that are clean, scalable, affordable, abundant and secure. It is difficult to have your cake and eat it too.
Yet there is cause for guarded optimism. The chasm between our energy needs and our policy constraints can be bridged by technology, the ultimate agent of change.
To that end, The Financial Times online is featuring a Special Report entitled “Modern Energy.” The report, which was initially released in the September 16 print edition of the paper, has a series of articles on new energy technologies, ranging from offshore wind farms and advanced biofuels to nuclear fusion and solar power.
Of particular note is an article on the future of the global coal industry (“Dirtiest source of power aims to clean up its act”). The article devotes significant attention to carbon capture and storage (CCS), and credits former Shell chairman Lord Oxburgh with stating that “clean coal technology is the world’s best hope for tackling climate change.” According to the article, Oxburgh predicts that the CCS industry will eventually grow to be as big as today’s oil industry.
While a number of substantial challenges remain for CCS, the FT article briefly profiles an extremely promising demonstration phase project being undertaken by Swedish energy company Vattenfall. At a 30 MW power plant in Eastern Germany, Vattenfall is burning coal using a process known as “oxy-fuel combustion” that produces a flue gas with CO2 concentrations of more than 80 percent by volume. This concentrated CO2 is then easily compressed into a liquid, making it straightforward to transport and ready to be stored underground. (For more info, see the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on CCS)
Perhaps most importantly, Vattenfall CEO Lars Josefsson thinks the cost of capture and storage can be cut by 60 percent within about a decade.
It remains to be seen whether Vattenfall can find a suitable location for long-term CO2 storage. And what is possible at a 30 MW plant may require further advances before it can be deployed at more significant facilities. But the R&D process is moving forward on both fronts. Regardless of the outcome, the approach of Vattenfall should give cause for optimism to proponents of both energy security and climate security. At some point, we may yet have the best of both worlds.
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