Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
critical report on CCS, portraying it as little more than a smokescreen to rehabilitate the
dirtiest fossil fuel under the banner of 'clean coal' technology, and saying its capacity to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions is minimal (Rochon et al.
2008
). Others are more upbeat.
According to the IEA, “Carbon capture and storage is more than a strategy for 'clean
coal'. CCS technology must also be adopted by biomass and gas power plants; in the fuel
transformationandgasprocessingsectors;andinemissions-intensiveindustrialsectorslike
cement, iron and steel, chemicals, and pulp and paper” (IEA
2009c
, 4). The IEA believes
that CCS could play an important role in the global transition to a sustainable low carbon
economy, accounting for up to one-fifth of global GHG emissions reductions from the
energy sector by 2050 (IEA
2009b
). However, even proponents of CCS admit that this
6.12 The Monetary Costs of Energy Production
Many people believe that the path to renewable energy has been blocked by powerful
lobbies with vested interests in maintaining the fossil fuel economy. This is true up to a
point, insofar as human beings are apt to place personal interests above the common good.
But there are other reasons for the continued dominance of fossil fuels. The technology for
producing fossil fuels is well established, and a huge global infrastructure exists to deliver
them to their end users. Replacing this will require significant investment.
In most countries, a litre of petrol (that is, mineral oil extracted from the earth, refined,
and delivered to the pump) costs less than a litre of soda (that is, water extracted from
the earth, enriched with sugars and flavours, and delivered to the store). This illustrates
the point that, in purely monetary terms, fossil fuels are very cheap. So far, only a few
renewable energy sources (hydro, geothermal, and biomass) are already competitive with
coal, oil and gas.
The costs of a litre of petrol, a kilogramme of coal, a cubic metre of gas, or a
kilowatt-hour of conventional electricity are calculated based on the market price of the
primary resource, the capital invested to build the various facilities and infrastructures
required to produce the secondary resource and deliver it to the consumer, their operating
and maintenance (O&M) costs, and the cost of decommissioning those facilities at the end
of their life. The cost breakdown for renewables is somewhat different, since, apart from
bioenergy, the primary resource is free. However, because the technologies of renewable
energy are relatively immature, the initial investment and O&M costs are high.
Investment costs are sensitive to several variables. Materials and technology change
and sometimes improve rapidly, making a previously unaffordable process commercially
