(December 2, 2015) Serious
flaws have been found in a decade's worth of studies about the best way to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate.
The findings, from the University of Michigan, are released
as world leaders at COP21 attempt to negotiate the globe's first
internationally binding climate agreement.
The U-M researchers have found that most economic analysis
of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, technology for coal-fired power plants
severely underestimates the technique's costs and overestimates its energy
efficiency. CCS involves sucking carbon out of coal-fired power plants' flue
gases, compressing it and then injecting it deep underground.
The new analysis puts the cost of reducing carbon emissions
with CCS-equipped coal plants higher than any previous study—and most
importantly, higher than wind and comparable to solar power. It's the first study
to confront the so-called "energy loop" inherent in the CCS process.
Beyond a one-time "energy penalty" these plants
pay because they have to burn more coal to power devices that capture carbon,
the researchers say the disadvantage compounds until fuel costs leap to four
times today's accepted estimates.