International

Former Energy Secretary and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu is joining the Board of Directors of Inventys Thermal Technologies, a Canada-based company that said it has developed a new and less costly way to capture carbon emissions from coal and natural gas power plants.

The deployment of carbon capture and storage technology in the United Kingdom could add between 15,000 and 30,000 jobs and £15–£35 billion in Gross Value Added to the nation’s economy, according to a new report prepared for the Trades Union Congress and the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/21/2014 Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz emphasized the Obama Administration’s commitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy this week—including support for the continued use of fossil fuels—and said the Department of Energy is trying to increase its collaboration with China on carbon capture and storage technologies in order to allow the use […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/21/2014 Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with briefly with Chinese officials about carbon capture and storage technology during his diplomatic tour of Asia this week, focusing on an initiative to accelerate the adoption of CCUS in both U.S. and China that was delineated under a bilateral Climate Change Working Group […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/21/2014 The United Kingdom should adopt a target of generating 10 percent of its electricity from fossil fuel plants fitted with carbon capture and storage technology by 2025, said an industry-led stakeholder group that includes BP, Alstom, Siemens, Costain and EDF Energy last month—joining a chorus of industry calls to the […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/28/2014 The United Kingdom and Shell signed a multi-million pound contract for engineering, design and financial work in the form of a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study for the Peterhead carbon capture and storage project this week, taking the project to the next phase of development that is expected […]

A public-private partnership based in the United Kingdom is soliciting proposals for natural gas-capture projects, floating the possibility of up to £20 million ($31.8 million) in funding for the design, construction and operation of a small demonstration unit. 

The Norwegian government announced Sept. 20 that it plans to discontinue development of a full-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration facility at Mongstad in favor of a separate CCS program that would seek to bring a project online by 2020. 

Two U.K.-based research organizations signed a memorandum of understanding with two Chinese counterparts late this week aimed at paving the way for carbon capture, utilization and storage-related RD&D work.

The Petroleum Technology Research Centre recently wrapped up construction work on Aquistore and is currently negotiating a contract to hand over the project to SaskPower for CO2 injection operations. 

The U.K. branch of National Grid is seeking public input on a multi-user CO2 pipeline project proposed for northeast England. 

Carbon capture and storage supporters are seeking to frame the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent Fifth Assessment Report as a call to action for governments to invest in RD&D. 

The Petroleum Technology Research Centre defended its accounting tied to its Aquistore CO2 storage project this week after a prominent Canadian broadcaster reported that cost overruns may have been higher than initially reported by the Regina, Saskatchewan-based organization. 

The Australian government proposed cutting more than $660 million from carbon capture and storage and ‘clean coal’ programs this week as part of its 2013-2014 budget, a plan that could deeply impact two CCS demonstration projects there that rely heavily on federal funding. 

One of China’s most powerful government ministries called for the wider promotion and deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage pilot and demonstration projects across government agencies in a new policy statement publicly released this week. 

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall underscored the province’s commitment to carbon capture and storage in a speech this week at the 12th Annual Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration Conference, touting SaskPower’s Boundary Dam project as a breakout success story. 

The private sector arm of the World Bank and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government-owned clean energy investment company, signed a memorandum of understanding late last week that could pave the way for more than $1 billion for large-scale clean energy technology projects including carbon capture, utilization and storage. 

A report released this week by a consortium of pro-carbon capture and storage groups calls on the natural gas industry to step up as CCS’ champion in Europe, arguing that doing so would both boost the urgency for CCS deployment and expand the future prospects for gas in an increasingly carbon constrained economy there. 

SaskPower said late last week that it has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with U.K. researchers aimed at linking the construction and operating experience gained at its Boundary Dam carbon capture and storage facility with an academic program in the United Kingdom.

The U.K. Parliament’s lower chamber advanced comprehensive energy legislation this week that could significantly boost the business case for carbon capture and storage in the United Kingdom, but also rejected a proposal that would shore up decarbonization targets two years early. 

A new International Energy Agency report released this week suggests that limiting the construction and use of sub-critical coal-fired power plants, implementing energy efficiency measures, halving fugitive methane emissions from gas production and phasing out some of the world’s fossil fuel subsidies could deliver “significant” emissions reductions globally by 2020 while not harming economic growth. 

United Nations officials last week cited modest progress at the most recent round of climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, despite an early setback that saw the suspension of a key negotiating track there. 

A new joint Norwegian-Lithuanian carbon capture and storage project is one of nine large-scale ventures that appear to be vying for European money in the second round of the European Union’s New Entrants Reserve competition. 

The next seven years are “critical” to the development of carbon capture and storage, and developing a business case for the technology is essential for government and industry to focus on through 2020, the International Energy Agency said in a new report issued this week. 

Construction work at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam carbon capture and storage facility came to a halt last week after asbestos was found onsite. 

The U.S. and China unveiled a set of new initiatives this week aimed at limiting climate change, including a provision to increase carbon capture, utilization and storage in the two countries, which together account for more than 40 percent of the world’s coal consumption. 

Only one large-scale carbon capture and storage project has been submitted to the second round of the European Commission’s New Entrants Reserve competition, news that disappointed CCS supporters who had hoped the scheme could catalyze up to a dozen projects and catapult the continent into the role of technology leader. 

The National Energy Technology Laboratory has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian Coal Association related to carbon capture and storage, the Department of Energy announced late this week.

The World Bank Group announced this week that it would sharply limit its financing of coal-fired power plants in the developing world in a landmark decision that hands an early victory to the Obama Administration and its recently-announced climate plan. 

Australia plans to transition from a flat carbon tax to a cap-and-trade system next summer—a year earlier than planned, newly installed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced this week. The Australian government plans to help fund the shift, in part, by cutting and deferring funding for carbon capture and storage research.