Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
could provide the same electricity generation capacity from onshore and
offshore wind.
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2.1.3 'Instead of' or 'As well as'?. Fatih Birol of the IEA has said that an
increase in unconventional gas production would be ''a good move if it re-
places coal... but it is definitely not the optimum path''.
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This comment
highlights another global-level issue: can we ensure that shale gas will be
used instead of other fossil fuels, such as coal or conventional gas from
the Arctic, rather than as well as them?
This has not been the case in recent years in the US. Analysis by the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research shows that fuel switching (from coal to
shale gas) in the US power sector may account for up to half the total national
emissions reduction.
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However, the consequent drop in the price of coal has
led to an increase in exports, including to the UK where coal use for electricity
generation in the UK rose from 30% in 2011 to 39% in 2012, the latest full year
for which figures are available.
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Tyndall estimates that just over half of the
emissions avoided in the US power sector have been 'exported' as coal.
2.1.4 Carbon Capture and Storage. Many fossil fuel advocates claim that
problems of carbon emissions can be addressed through the use of carbon
capture and storage (CCS). CCS involves the capture of carbon dioxide
emissions from fossil-fuel burning and their storage underground where
they cannot have an impact on the atmosphere (see Carbon Capture, vol.
29, in this Issues in Environmental Science series).
Friends of the Earth believes that CCS may have a transitional role to play
in future energy policy, retrofitting many current gas-fired power stations in
the UK and elsewhere, and also being used in industry (e.g. cement, steel)
but it is no panacea:
It can only deal with some fossil-fuel emissions - on power stations and
large industrial processes, but not on domestic and commercial heating
which accounts for much of the UK's gas consumption;
It does not eliminate carbon emissions completely;
The use together of the three elements of CCS (capture, transport and
storage) is still commercially unproven at commercial scale; and
It does not have a large impact on carbon budgets. Carbon Tracker has
estimated that even an ''idealised'' scenario of huge investment in CCS
infrastructure would only extend global carbon budgets by 125 Gt CO
2.
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At present, CCS seems to be more a justification for allowing coal and gas
investment to go ahead on the speculative assumption that CCS will be fitted
in the future.
In conclusion with regard to climate change, extracting shale gas is just
adding to the stock of unburnable carbon at both the global and UK levels. It
is underpinning the Government's 'dash for gas' and could adversely affect
investment in renewables.
