Capturing King Coal
As a cheap and relatively plentiful source of power for some of the world’s largest economies, many millions of people have a vested interest in finding ways to keep coal in the mix of our future energy supplies. But until utilities and energy companies can develop a way to reduce the significant greenhouse gases generated by coal-fired power plants, coal’s future is often seen as incompatible with the world’s low-carbon future.
According to a new report from the World Resources Institute, despite widespread hope and discussion of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a means to green up coal, there is a long road ahead, filled with challenges on both the policy and innovation fronts, to achieve that goal.
The report explores the current state of CCS research and analyzes the complex challenges faced by investors when deploying CCS technologies. The report’s authors — Hiranya Fernando, John Venezia, Clay Rigdon, and Preeti Verma — find that until government policies support large-scale demonstrations, CCS is unlikely to fulfill its potential in combating climate change.
