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A need for investment in cleaner coal technologies

According to the World Coal Association (WCA), the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) “Energy and Climate Change” report underlines the importance of investment in cleaner coal technologies.

“The IEA report highlights how crucial cleaner coal technologies will be if global climate ambitions are to be met. Even in a world with significant growth in renewable energy, the IEA says coal will still be a critical part of the global energy mix for decades to come,” said WCA CEO, Benjamin Sporton. “That means there must be more investment in high-efficiency low-emissions coal-fired power generation and carbon capture and storage (CCS).”

Sporton continued: “Calls to end the use of low-efficiency coal plants must be matched by policy measures that support deployment of the most efficient coal technology. That means support must be made available to those countries who have determined coal is a critical part of their energy mix.”

“Development banks and climate finance mechanisms must provide financial support for highly-efficient coal technologies. That’s why the WCA has proposed a global Platform for Accelerating Coal Efficiency (PACE) to help countries build the best technology,” Sporton said.

High-efficiency coal plants are also reported as key to initial movements towards deploying CCS and will need large additional investments.

“We call for more serious commitment to CCS from governments. CCS must be given policy parity with other low emission energy sources. This includes the same public support, feed in tariffs and other mechanisms currently available for renewable energy,” Sporton said.

Early investment in CCS is estimated by the IEA report to potentially lower cost and improve competitiveness. It is exemplified by the world’s first commercially operating coal-fired CCS plant, which began operation at Boundary Dam, in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 2014.

“The Boundary Dam project is a milestone in CCS deployment and highlights the significant benefits of large-scale demonstration. The Boundary Dam plant is already showing the cost of CCS can be driven down in future projects. As the IEA report noted, this means that coal-fired electricity with CCS will be competitive with other low-emission power generation,” Sporton concluded.

source: http://www.worldcoal.com