http://leaderpost.com/news/politics/carbon-capture-wrong-technology-says-new-report
[And to repeat: the Saskatchewan Boundary Dam "CCS" project is not
actually a sequestration project at all, it is an Enhanced Oil Recovery
(EOR) project.]
Carbon Capture wrong technology, says new report
D.C. Fraser, Regina Leader-Post D.C. Fraser, Regina Leader-Post
Published on: July 6, 2017 | Last Updated: July 7, 2017 2:59 PM CST
A new report from a U.K.-based think tank is taking aim at the use of
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), including how it is being used
in Saskatchewan.
Gordon Hughes, a former advisor to the World Bank and economics
professor at the University of Edinburgh, wrote in a Global Warming
Policy Foundation (GWPF) report that Saskatchewan’s use of CCS
technology is “an object lesson in the uncertainties and difficulties of
managing the installation of a new technology.”
GWPF is, according to its website, an organization “deeply concerned
about the costs and other implications of many of the policies currently
being advocated” regarding global warming, which it considers a
“contested science.”
SaskPower spent $1.5 billion retrofitting an existing coal power plant —
Boundary Dam 3, near Estevan — with CCS technology.
Its aim was to reduce carbon emissions generated by the coal-fired
plant, but Hughes says in his report it has “not performed up to
expectations.”
He notes breakdowns and maintenance have led to the unit operating only
40 per cent of the time. Hughes suggests replacing the coal-fired plant
with an efficient gas plant would have cut CO2 emissions at five to 10
per cent of the cost.
“This is really the key lesson from the Boundary Dam project. It was
simply an application of the wrong technology in the wrong
circumstances,” he writes.
In a statement, the premier’s office said they will be taking a closer
look at the report and says some of the facts contained within it are
outdated.
“(The report) says BD3 is only up 40% of the time (which was the first
year of operation), but BD3 is up and running 85% of the time the second
year, which is right on target,” said the statement.
According to SaskPower, BD3 has been operating 68.5 per cent of the time
since it became operational in October 2014 to June 2017, when an outage
lasting the month and into July was planned.
The province also pointed out Hughes’ summary suggests CCS technology
only made sense for utility companies in charge of all aspects of
providing power. That includes providing the power, bringing it to
communities, billing customers and fixing outages.
“That’s exactly what SaskPower is,” said the statement.
The province says Hughes’ suggestion the coal-fired plant should be
replaced with an efficient gas plant is “using a lot of hindsight”
because nobody predicted gas prices to be as low as they are.
Cathy Sproule, who is the NDP’s critic of SaskPower, says CCS technology
is “really too expensive.”
“The people of Saskatchewan, with increasing rate hikes, are being
misled by the government,” she said. “The government says this is
revolutionary technology, but the facts are not bearing that out.”
She called the project a “colossal economic failure.”