Completing GreenGen, which will generate up to 250 megawatts of electricity, may prove daunting, however. “There’s no co-benefit to doing the carbon capture and storage,” says energy technology expert Kelly Sims Gallagher of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “There’s an argument for doing GreenGen in terms of research and getting experience with it, but from a commercial point of view it doesn’t make sense.” The reason: extra energy is consumed to turn the coal into gas and subsequently to then capture the CO2—in effect requiring the burning of more coal to generate the same amount of electricity.
GreenGen is a for-profit power plant, so economic gains or losses will determine whether its owners ever proceed with the capture-and-storage step. One argument in its favor would be to pump the extracted CO2 into underperforming oil wells to recover more of the oil. In an environment where oil is more expensive than ever, that approach could be “economically viable and valuable for nations that are rich in coal,” says Vic Svec, a senior vice president at U.S. coal giant Peabody, which is part owner of GreenGen.
Better Enforcement Needed(需要更有效的管理)
Residents of Chongqing got a glimpse of cleaner skies in the years leading up to the recent Olympics, as factories were shifted to the outskirts of towns and small, inefficient coal power plants were closed to clear the air for visiting media and tourists. “When I was young, the sky was green, and we [could not] see stars at night,” says local government official David Lee, a lifelong Chongqing resident. “This year we see blue skies and stars. We think it’s much better.”
【[科技前沿]中国能源问题两难——清洁城市和不清洁煤能】相关文章:
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