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The International Energy Agency has identified 17 key technologies that can make the largest contribution to achieving the 2050 goals7. Separately and collectively, the implementation of these technologies involves significant challenges for both governments and the private sector. Those technologies are:
Supply Side Key Technologies
- Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) fossil-fuel power generation
- Nuclear power plants
- Onshore and offshore wind
- Biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) & co-combustion
- Photovoltaic systems
- Concentrating solar power
- Coal: integrated-gasification combined cycle
- Coal: ultra-supercritical
- Second generation biofuels
Demand Side Key Technologies
- Energy efficiency in buildings and appliances
- Heat pumps
- Solar space and water heating
- Energy efficiency in transport
- Electric and plug-in vehicles
- H2 fuel cell vehicles
- CCS industry, H2 and fuel transformation
- Energy efficiency in industrial motor systems
Substantial research and development is needed for all of these technologies. Making the needed R & D investment is critical to the fight against climate change.
The Electrical Power Research Institute8 estimates that for the U.S. economy alone, a $30 billion dollar investment in R & D could save $1 trillion in the cost of achieving climate change goals.
The International Energy Agency7 has identified Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as the single most important new technology needed for meeting the 2050 CO2 emission reduction goals. CO2 emission control technology is considered the most important key technology because it permits the continued use of fossil fuels while still achieving the 2050 goals. Continued reliance on fossil fuels is essential to continued world wide economic growth because some of these key supply side technologies are not yet available while others require further refinement and cost reduction.
CCS involves the capture of CO2 from the flue gases of large stationary sources such as power plants or other industrial plants. The CO2 is then transported by pipeline, sometimes over great distances depending where the source is in relation to the storage site, and injected into either producing oil and gas reservoirs to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons from those reservoirs or into abandoned reservoirs for indefinite storage. The IPCC in concert with the G7 countries has initiated and continue to study and test the feasibility of using CCS to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel generating plants and industrial facilities. To date there has not been a full scale demonstration of CCS on a coal fired power plant and the International Energy Agency considers such a demonstration to be urgent.
Greenhouse gas emission cap-and-trade systems, such as those used by the EU and proposed by President Obama, will be a key part of any plan to reduce climate change. These systems promote the most efficient ways of achieving reduced harmful emissions by using market mechanisms to achieve environmental goals. Theoretically, under such an approach, any of the above key technologies identified by the International Energy Agency as well as IES’ technology must demonstrate their effectiveness in the marketplace. The problem is the scope of the problem is so large, and action must be taken so quickly, that all of these technologies must rely in some part upon governmental action in order to be able to reach the market, whether it be in the form of research and development, direct investment or other subsidies, regulatory approvals, and environmental permits. The International Energy Agency cautions against locking in inefficient technologies for decades to come. Given the need for a variety of governmental actions, it is not a given that a cap and trade system will be able to assure that the most efficient and cost effective technologies will be chosen. |
