UKCCSC News 1 October 2008

Hi Folks,

Australia reveals plans to take over the world:

“[Aussie PM Kevin] Rudd unveils carbon research institute” The Australian (Sept 19)

“AUSTRALIA has set aside $100 million a year for a new carbon research institute to position itself as a go-to place globally for technology that captures emissions and store them deep underground.”

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24370542-15306,00.html

Not everybody down-under is happy about this (as they are paying for it) but Norway and the UK are keen, probably as long as it doesn’t cost anything…

“Norway has joined Britain in giving its support to Australia's proposal for a new international carbon capture and storage institute.” theAge.com (Sept 25)

http://news.theage.com.au/world/norway-backs-rudds-carbon-storage-plan-20080925-4nmt.html

The Clinton Climate Initiative is also keen, that’s as in Bill, or William J. as he’s now known apparently.

http://news.theage.com.au/world/clinton-supports-carbon-storage-plan-20080926-4o7p.html

2) Nearer to home, bad news for Scotland with an interesting view-point from FoE:

“Greenhouse gas emissions jump 5% in year” Scotsman (19 Sept)

“SCOTLAND'S greenhouse gas emissions rose by more than 5 per cent in a year, new figures show.”

“Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said it underlined the need to back clean coal technology.”  i.e. CCS.

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Greenhouse-gas-emissions-jump-537.4508551.jp

3) One of the UK CCS competition survivors plans burial in an empty gas field in the Southern North Sea.

 “Tullow plans to bury CO2” Independent (Sept 30)

“"We've looked at this from a corporate social responsibility view, but it's a £200m investment for us. It has to be viable in the long term and we'll probably end up making a reasonable return from it," Aidan Heavey, Tullow's chief executive said.”

I wonder if the return is dependant on winning the competition?

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/tullow-plans-to-bury-co2-1479342.html

4) “Report boosts European policy on CO2” Financial Times (Sept 22)

“European advocates of trapping and storing carbon dioxide as a means of curbing power-plant emissions received a boost on Monday when an experts’ report said the technology could become commercially viable in less than 25 years.

The study by the McKinsey consultancy estimated that for new coal-fired plants, carbon capture and storage (CCS) costs would average €30-€45 (£24-£38, $44-$66) by 2030 for every ton of CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ede611e0-88bd-11dd-a179-0000779fd18c.html

Oddly, the FT report above misses out (or underplays, I didn’t notice it) one tiny detail:

“Carbon capture viable by 2030 but needs £8bn to begin now” Guardian (Sept 23)

So OK, that’s 8 billion tiny details.

5) Apparently the Labour party has been having its conference in Manchester, an event which had otherwise passed me by (I probably missed it in a power outage, or blackout as they were called in the 70s). In the continuing left-right role reversal, Labour is pitting itself against the green groups, this time it’s the Business secretary John Hutton:

“Hutton reiterates controversial support for coal and nuclear” BusinessGreen.com (22 Sept)

“In his speech to the Labour Conference in Manchester, Hutton said both sources of power were essential to help secure the UK's energy supply and as such would play a key role in the UK's energy strategy alongside the promised ten-fold increase in renewable energy capacity.

"Because energy security is a first thought, not an afterthought, I will not turn my back on another critical source of energy security for the UK: coal," he said.

There is no mention of CCS except as an option that won’t be adopted.

The government is also picking a fight with its own Environment Agency:

“Coal power stations must have carbon capture and storage, Environment Agency says” Telegraph (25 Sept)

“The Environment Agency (EA), in its response to the Government's consultation on CCS, said building power stations which could have carbon-capture 'bolted on' at a later date should not be an option.”

6) Al Gore apparently has a similar perspective, if ‘clean coal’ can be delivered quickly then fine, otherwise shut up about it. He is calling for civil disobedience to prevent new coal plant building.

“Gore calls for coal plant protests” CNN (25 Sept)

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/25/gore.carbon/

7) This ought to be running by now:

“RWE npower readies CO2 capture test facilities at Didcot power station” EnergyBusinessReview (23 Sept)

“The test facility will enable RWE npower to evaluate the capture of CO2 from gases released after the burning of coal, and from oxyfuel firing.”

http://www.energy-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=FD9B2D30-5AD2-4D1D-ABD8-1616666411F7

The press release is here:

http://www.rwe.com/generator.aspx/presse/language=en/id=76864?pmid=4002532

8) Any advance-planners fancy an unusual holiday?

“It is a pleasure for us to invite you to the workshop on the modeling and risk assessment of the geological storage of CO2. The workshop will take place from August 3rd to 7th, 2009, in Longyearbyen, the capital of the beautiful island of Svalbard.

The main themes of the workshop will be the numerical modeling of  geological sequestration, and the integration of numerical models into risk-assessment frameworks.”

http://www.uib.no/cipr/Workshop/2009/CO2/index.htm

Registration deadline is 31 October 2008, for August 2009!!

9) I can’t say I recommend this exactly, but if you’ve nothing better to do then ‘The Great Moonbat’ is actually CCS’s old friend George Monbiot. There might be an opinion in here, somewhere.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/28/do2805.xml

That’s all Folks

Mark