With $3.5 Billion in new federal funding complementing a flurry of state-level activity, EER sees CCS project activity able to weather the economic downturn, positioning the US to emerge as the leading market for CCS demonstration and deployment globally.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 18, 2009 - Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) activity received a much-needed boost from the federal stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) which will increase federal CCS support in the US by 70% to over US$8 billion for demonstration and deployment of CCS projects.
Further boosting the industry's prospects, several US states including Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Kansas, have introduced or passed CCS legislation in the past three months.
Analysts at Emerging Energy Research (EER), a Cambridge, MA energy advisory firm, see the state-led initiatives, the new CCS demonstration funding, and the support of the Obama administration as critical pieces necessary to jump-start commercial capture of CO2 in the US power industry.
"If coal is to maintain its share in the global power generation mix over the next two decades, its carbon emissions must be mitigated through the capture of CO2," according to Alex Klein, EER Research Director. "While sequestration solutions have been demonstrated on a trial basis, carbon sequestration's commercial viability on a broad scale can only be established by the projects this money will support," says Klein.
Klein added, "The fact that individual states have begun to take the lead in CCS policy creates an even greater mandate for these demonstration projects." He singled out Illinois, where the Clean Coal Portfolio Law (CCPL) makes that state the first to create a portfolio standard requiring utilities and power retailers to get electricity from coal plants with CCS, and Texas, where a proposed US$100 million in franchise tax credits per plant may be available to developers of IGCC facilities that capture and sequester at least 60% of their CO2 emissions.
According to EER's recently completed study, Global Carbon Sequestration Markets and Strategies, 2009-2030, CCS could emerge as a viable, cost-competitive option suitable to fulfill minimum coal plant demand in developed power markets by 2016. The same study reports that carbon sequestration project investment could reach between US$30 billion and US$70 billion per year by 2030. Exhibit: US CCS Activity Accelerates with Recent State Policy Activity
Source: Emerging Energy Research LLC, Global Carbon Sequestration Power Markets and Strategies, 2009-2030
About the Findings
The above release is based on findings from Global Carbon Sequestration Markets and Strategies, 2009-2030, a new study from EER which evaluates the sequestration industry's short-term potential and long-term outlook. Featuring over 183 pages of comprehensive analysis, EER's new study of global carbon sequestration markets analyzes the role of carbon policies in driving sequestration development and evaluates the strategies of oil and gas players, power companies and entrepreneurial upstarts. Follow this link for the study's Table of Contents and Order Information
About Emerging Energy Research Emerging Energy Research is a leading industry advisory firm providing unrivaled balance and perspective on the world's clean and renewable energy markets. Based in Cambridge, MA and Barcelona, Spain, EER works with more than 1,000 stakeholders across the industry, providing research-based advice, support, and analysis to executives and key decision-makers including utilities, developers, independent power producers, technology promoters, manufacturers, and investment companies.