(Calgary) Carbon capture and storage is key to making Canada’s electricity grid greener, but meeting the federal government’s proposed timeline will be extremely difficult based on the current state of technology, says a new report .
If federal regulations on clean electricity are too strict, they could dissuade companies from investing in emissions-reducing carbon capture, the paper further warns.
Carbon capture and storage involves using technology to capture harmful greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes and storing them safely underground, preventing them from entering the atmosphere.
Experts say large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage in sectors where reducing emissions is more difficult, such as oil and gas production and cement manufacturing, will be necessary if Canada is to have any chance of achieve its climate objectives.
Carbon capture and storage units will also need to be installed at natural gas and coal-fired power plants in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia – provinces that do not have significant hydroelectric capacity and, therefore still rely heavily on fossil fuels – if the country is to achieve Ottawa’s goal of carbon neutrality in electricity production by 2035.
In its report released Thursday, the Regina-based International CCUS Knowledge Center urges the federal government to rethink the emissions intensity limits for power plants set out in its proposed clean electricity regulations.
The draft regulations currently stipulate that after 2035, fossil fuel-fired power plants will have to meet an emissions performance standard of no more than 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide per gigawatt of electricity produced per year.
This means that to be compliant, natural gas-fired power plants would need to achieve a CO capture rate2 by almost 95%, noted International CCUS Knowledge Center Vice President of Policy, Regulation and Stakeholder Relations Beth Valiaho.
However, the organization points out that no carbon capture facility in the world currently achieves this level of performance, it added. Canada’s only large-scale carbon capture facility currently operating at a power plant is at Boundary Dam, a SaskPower facility in Saskatchewan, and its CO capture rate2 is between 65% and 70%.
This facility was designed to have a 90% emissions capture rate, but it has experienced technical problems and equipment failures.
“That doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” Ms.me Valiaho, adding that many carbon capture technology providers believe a 95% capture rate is technically achievable.
“I think there is a future state where it will operate at that kind of high level, but, you know, there’s not one that’s operating continuously in the world right now. with this type of performance. »
Advocacy for “achievable” standards
Mme Valiaho said many of the problems encountered at Boundary Dam could be avoided in future carbon capture facilities, thanks to some of the lessons learned there.
But if federal requirements are too strict and power producers have doubts about the standards’ achievability, they might choose not to invest in carbon capture at all, she added.
Regulations that are too strict could also put operators who have installed carbon capture technology in good faith out of compliance with the law. Mme Valiaho pointed out that under the current draft regulations, Boundary Dam would have to close, even though the facility captured more than four million tons of CO2 harmful since the start of its activities in 2014.
“We want to see capture and storage moving forward. We don’t want it to fail because of unachievable standards,” she said.
Scott MacDougall, director of the electricity program at the Pembina Institute, said carbon capture and storage technology is extremely important in reducing emissions from the electricity sector, particularly in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
He said he hoped the federal government would take industry feedback into account and introduce more leniency into regulations.
” There [réglementation sur l’électricité propre] should encourage the use of capture and storage technology, not penalize it,” said MacDougall.
“I hope they take some advice on this and make some adjustments later.” »