The Obama administration is undermining its own plans for carbon capture

By John Upton

Shutterstock

The Obama administration will soon require new coal-fired power plants to capture the carbon dioxide they produce and store it underground. Coal companies that had long touted “clean coal” turned on the idea, arguing that carbon sequestration isn’t commercially viable.

But don’t you worry about the poor coal industry. The fossil fuel guys have a trick up their sleeve. Here is the AP, reporting on an approach adopted at a new coal power plant in Mississippi:

At first, the idea behind “carbon-capture” technology was to make coal plants cleaner by burying the carbon dioxide deep underground that they typically pump out of smokestacks.

But that green vision proved too expensive and complicated, so the administration accepted a trade-off.

To help the environment, the government allows power companies to sell the carbon dioxide to oil companies, which pump it into old oil fields to force more crude to the surface. A side benefit is that the carbon gets permanently stuck underground.

The program shows the ingenuity of the oil industry, which is using government green-energy money to subsidize oil production. But it also showcases the environmental trade-offs Obama is willing to make, but rarely talks about, in his fight against global warming. …

Four power plants in the U.S. and Canada … intend to sell their carbon waste for oil recovery.

So say goodbye to carbon dioxide, and hello to oil that will be burned to produce more carbon dioxide.

As if it weren’t bad enough that this approach undermines the whole intent of carbon capture, scientists recently linked the practice of injecting carbon dioxide into oil fields to a major flurry of earthquakes in Texas in 2009 and 2010.

Exxon, Qatar Petroleum sign deal to export LNG out of planned plant in Texas

May 10, 2013, 2:06 PM

By Claudia Assis

Golden Pass Products

Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM  and Qatar Petroleum International have signed an agreement to sell liquefied natural gas from a planned export plant in Sabine Pass, Texas.

The subsidiary, Golden Pass Products LLC, has Department of Energy authorization to export to countries with free trade agreements with the U.S. but not to countries without a FTA. Golden Pass would invest about $10 million to build the plant, but that investment is contingent to permits and whether it would be allowed to export to non-FTA countries.

More than a dozen planned plants planned LNG export terminals are also waiting for that green light. The U.S. has FTAs with 20 countries, none of which are particularly large LNG buyers. Non-FTA countries include several Asian and European nations that are keen on LNG, such as Japan and Spain.

Only one, Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass plant, is approved to export to both FTA and non-FTA countries. Cheniere’s plant is expected to operate by the end of 2015. The company filed a request in early March to expand its planned facility.

Golden Pass’ planned LNG export plant would be added to an existing import terminal, as it is also common in the industry — the glut in natural gas in the U.S. has made these import facilities all but idle. Golden Pass expects to ship up to 15.6 million metric tons of natural gas per year from the facility.

“This agreement sets out a highly competitive commercial blueprint for Golden Pass Products, with a commitment that builds on the unique combined strengths of QPI and ExxonMobil throughout the global downstream LNG value chain,” Bill Collins, president of Golden Pass Products, said in a statement.

Shell, Drax Named Preferred Bidders for $1.5 Billion CCS Funding

The U.K. selected two projects led by companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) andDrax Group Plc (DRX) as preferred bidders for 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) of funding forcarbon capture and storage.

The Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland by Shell and SSE Plc (SSE) was selected along with the White Rose venture in northern England by Drax, Alstom SA (ALO) and BOC Group Ltd., according to a statement on the Department of Energy and Climate Change website. The projects were chosen from among eight original bids last year.

The government wants to spur a carbon capture industry by the 2020s by supporting commercial operations that bury emissions under the seabed. The plans appeared to falter after British CCS projects missed out on a first round of European funding and a first attempt at the 1 billion-pound contest failed in 2011.

“Today’s announcement moves us a significant step closer to a carbon capture and storage industry,” Energy Secretary Ed Davey said in the statement.

DECC will make an investment decision to build “up to two” projects in early 2015, with facilities slated for operation from 2016, according to the statement. The department plans to agree on contracts to carry out early engineering and design studies for the projects by summer.

Capture Power Ltd., the CCS venture comprising Drax, Alstom and BOC, said in a separate statement it will get government funding for preliminary engineering work for carbon capture at a coal-fired power station at the Drax site near Selby in northern England.

Shell and SSE plan to fit equipment to trap 90 percent of the emissions from the Peterhead power station in what would be the world’s first commercial CCS demonstration at a gas-fired plant, for storage in the depleted Goldeneye gas reservoir offshore Scotland.

“The government’s decision sends a strong signal of support for the role of gas in meeting the rise in global energy demand,” Ed Daniels, chairman at Shell U.K., said in a separate statement.

Warren Buffett In $2 Billion Solar Deal

Warren Buffett In $2 Billion Solar Deal

Making a big bet on solar energy, Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company has acquired two SunPower solar photovoltaic power plant projects inCalifornia for between $2 billion and $2.5 billion,
the companies said Wednesday.

The adjacent Antelope Valley Solar Projects will be
built in Los Angeles and Kern counties and will generate
579 megawatts of electricity for utility Southern
CaliforniaEdison. At peak output that’s the equivalent
of a big fossil fuel power plant.

SunPower, the Silicon Valley solar panel manufacturer
and developer, will build and operate the projects for
MidAmerican Renewables, a division of
MidAmerican Energy, which is controlled by
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

“We are excited about these projects because they
support our core business principle of environmental
respect,” Bill Fehrman, president of MidAmerican
Renewables, said in a statement. “We are very proud
to add SunPower technology to our portfolio of projects,”

It’s just the latest solar deal for Buffett. MidAmerican
Energy also owns the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar
Farms built by First Solar in San Luis County, Calif.,
and holds a 49% stake in a 290-megawatt solar power
plant in Yuma, Ariz.

Construction of the Antelope Valley Solar Projects is
set to begin this year with the power plants going online
at the end of 2015.

Next-Gen Solar Cells Receive Efficiency Boost from Graphene

Solar Ink can be sprayed on any surface 

Graphene, a greatly promising new nanomaterial, may be able to substantially boost the efficiency of the next generation of solar panels, according to new research from Michigan Technological University.

Graphene is a two-dimensional, one-atom-thick honeycomb of carbon atoms. It’s a much-hyped material because of its unique and radical properties, potentially allowing for great innovation and improvements in efficiency across a wide variety of fields. CleanTechnica has posted numerous stories on graphene in recent years.

One of its most interesting properties is its electrical conductivity, which could make it an important part of the next generation of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells.

Dye-sensitized solar cells use common and relatively inexpensive materials, making them cheaper than solar cells based on silicon and thin-film technologies. But they do not work as well as silicon-based cells at converting light into electricity.

“In dye-sensitized solar cells, photons knock electrons from the dye into a thin layer of titanium dioxide, which relays them to the anode. The researchers found that adding graphene to the titanium dioxide increased its conductivity, bringing 52.4 percent more current into the circuit.”

 

“The excellent electrical conductivity of graphene sheets allows them to act as bridges, accelerating electron transfer from the titanium dioxide to the photoelectrode,” said Yun Hang Hu, a professor of materials science and engineering.

The researchers also created a “comparably foolproof method for creating sheets of titanium dioxide embedded with graphene. It first made graphite oxide powder, then mixed it with titanium dioxide to form a paste, spread it on a substrate (such as glass) and then baked it a high temperatures.”

“It’s low-cost and very easy to prepare,” said Hu. But not just any recipe will do. “If you use too much graphene, it will absorb the light in the solar cell and reduce its efficiency,” he said.

The researchers presented a talk on their work, “Graphene for Solar Cells,” at the US-Egypt Joint Workshop on Solar Energy Systems, held March 12-14 in Cairo. It was funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund and the National Science Foundation.