🤓 carbon capture & storage has been given a bad rap.
yes, we've wasted $billions trying to graft it on to coal — we absolutely need to give up on that — but it's likely we'll eventually need the technology.
there are / have been just 3 significant #CCS+coal projects:
1. boundary dam🇨🇦: $1.4bn project captures CO₂ from a 110 MW coal unit (tiny), averaged 0.592Mt/yr since oct 2014 — 40% below design.
25% of the plant's power goes to extracting and compressing the CO₂.
2. petra nova🇺🇸: heralded by @JoshFrydenberg in 2017, cost US$1bn to build, captured ~4mtCO₂ before being mothballed this year as was uneconomic.
NRG built a 75MW gas power station to power the CCS project.
3. kemper project🇺🇸: after 10 years of construction and US$7.5bn the project was abandoned and converted to a gas power station.
[each of these projects uses/used/was going to use the captured CO₂ for "enhanced oil recovery". ie, using CO₂ to make more CO₂… which would be a bit like the fire brigade knowingly hiring arsonists.]
🇦🇺 we had a go building a #CCS+coal power station in QLD.
the "ZeroGen" project spent $188m in gov't grants before being abandoned as they realised $1.7bn for a 390MW plant was ridiculous.
living up to its name, ZeroGen generated zero energy & sequestered zero tonnes of CO₂.
there's a lot of debate about whether #CCS+coal works.
there's *no* doubt _technical_ feasibility has been demonstrated in 2 small (and several tiny) projects, with some failures.
however also *no* doubt that it's utterly uneconomic.
i'm so confident that #CCS+coal will remain a dud that i've offered this bet:
…and there are other industrial products that might benefit from similar tech.
…and #CCS+bioenergy (if done responsibly) provides a credible path to actually pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere.
it's a crying shame that the coal sector hijacked an important decarbonisation technology (that they never intended to implement) to prolong their life / muddy the debate.
australians🇦🇺: you're going to hear lots about ontario🇨🇦, which does have a very clean grid and cheap retail power.
but you should know 🧵
1. average age of ontario's nuclear fleet is 40 years. all government owned, but ~half privately operated.
2. the current nuclear price (as determined by the ontario energy board) from this old fleet is CAD 10.1¢/kWh which is the same as A$113/MWh.
ontario's proposed new nuclear power stations will cost much more…oeb.ca/sites/default/…
3a. a 2018 canadian gov't + industry report estimated cost of power from SMRs would have a mid-point of CAD$163/MWh, or CAD$215/MWh with a 3% cost overrun.
⚛️ why #nuclear power is a distraction for australia
if implemented, the #coalition's plan would see:
• increased gas & coal usage
• increased cost
• increased emissions
• higher chance of blackouts
read on to find out why… 🧵
firstly, let me say i have a deep interest in nuclear.
i've visited multiple nuclear plants, met with companies planning to build SMRs and nuclear VCs, taken a nuclear course at @MIT and closely watched the sector for years.
i encourage the use of nuclear where it makes sense.
some context: nuclear has had a long history of nothing in australia, including the start of construction in jervis bay (promptly cancelled by a liberal PM) and a federal ban (under a liberal PM).
important to note there are also state bans, including in NSW, VIC & QLD.
my wish for you all today is that you’re not seated at xmas dinner next to your uncle who wants to convince you that australia needs to go #nuclear. ☢️
bit if you do get cornered, you might want to remind him that… 🧵
1. about 90% of our coal power will shut down by 2035, the rest well before 2040 — due to age and economics
2. nuclear won’t be able to contribute meaningfully to our grid before 2040 — SMRs won’t be commercially available for years, and large-scale nukes take that long to build
3. AEMO, the grid operator, is very confident we can keep the lights on and keep industry humming with wind, solar and hydro, supported by storage and backed up by a small amount of gas.
…we’ll burn less fossil gas in most years than we do now