Energy Efficiency and Climate- Friendly Power Supply

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Energy Efficiency and Climate-Friendly Power
Supply

• Electricity 2020
• Bill Grant
• Izaak Walton League of America

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No energy free lunch

• Nuclear power exposure, waste disposal
• Hydropower river impoundment, flooding
• Oil air emissions, availability
• Natural gas availability, price
• Renewables variability, price, bird kills
• Coal air emissions, toxic releases, mining
  impacts, combustion waste, global warming

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Efficiency Minnesotas Least Cost Energy Source

• Electric use is growing at 2/year without
  efficiency, we will need to add new supply
• Since 1990, Minnesota electric utilities have
  saved 2,000 megawatts, the equivalent of two
  large coal or nuclear power plants
• Savings have come at less than 2 cents/kWh
  compare to new coal at over 6.5 cents/kWh

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Benefits of Energy Efficiency

• Lowest cost resource
• Economic development and job creation
• 4,000 new jobs by 2010 200 million in annual
  economic output
• Reduces need for new power plants
• Reduces pollution
• 20 million tons of CO2 reduced with Governors
  proposed goal of 1.5 annual savings
• When combined with new renewable energy
  development, can meet new power needs and reduce
  CO2 emissions

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Climate Friendly Power Supply

• Renewable energy Wind, biomass, solar,
  hydroelectric, geothermal
• Proposed 25 X 25 renewable energy standard will
  cut CO2 emissions by 17 million tons (11)
• Combined heat and power (cogeneration)
• Coal gasification with carbon sequestration

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Fuels Used to Generate Electricity in MN
Source DOC
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SOURCE NETL.DOE
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Proposed Midwest Coal Plants
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2002 Minnesota CO2 Emissions
Source MPCA
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Carbon Dioxide

• No longer a question of if climate change is
  happening now a question of what the impacts
  will be
• Recently released IPCC report asserts that human
  activity is likely the cause urgent action on a
  global scale is needed, but its not too late to
  avoid catastrophic warming
• Midwest (MN, WI, MI, IL, IN, OH) coal-fired power
  plants are responsible for 8 of total U.S. CO2
  emissions and 2 of world total CO2 emissions
• North Americas mean temperature has already
  risen 1.25ºF, global mean temperature has already
  risen 1ºF

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CO2 economic impacts

• Climate change will impact traditional Midwest
  economic sectors agriculture, forestry,
  shipping, recreation, etc.
• Ships either carry less or need for more dredging
  (which will release buried toxins) which may
  increase shipping costs
• Agriculture will experience some initial benefits
  due to longer growing season, but over time,
  there may be a northern migration of pests and
  plant diseases
• Recreation and tourism industries will also be
  impacted
• Decline in winter recreation opportunities with
  shorter winters
• Lake ice cover in Madison, WI, declined from 120
  days per year in 1850 to 90 days per year today
• Summer recreation boating impacts (lower water
  levels will affect marina owners, increase costs)

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The Clean-up Conundrum

• Spending millions of dollars to clean up old
  coal-fired power plants has the unwanted effect
  of extending plant lifetimes creates barriers to
  market entry for new, cleaner technologies
• Adding controls for SOX, NOX, and mercury may
  lead to even higher CO2 emissions

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Gasification Overview

• 130 gasification plants in operation world-wide
• Most of these are in chemical production, not
  electricity
• Technology is referred to as integrated
  gasification combined cycle (IGCC)
• There are 16 IGCC plants that operate now or have
  been in operation. Another 6 IGCC plants are in
  development.
• These use a variety of fuels including oil, pet
  coke,and coal

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CO2 Emissions IGCC v. Coal

• IGCC technology easily captures CO2 from air
  emissions.
• - Getting the CO2 out of the IGCC emissions
  stream is easy, but compression and
  sequestration is expensive.
• Conventional coal plants cant remove CO2 from
  emissions at any reasonable cost.

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Implications

• Options to stop global warming could close if the
  next generation of coal plants worldwide cant
  capture carbon dioxide.
• Climate scientists generally agree on need to cut
  CO2 emissions by 80 before 2050. A full
  implementation of efficiency and renewable energy
  cannot reach this target without carbon
  sequestration or some combination of nuclear,
  fuel switching (i.e., natural gas), or carbon
  sinks (forests, ag soils, etc)
• Need to establish IGCC with the option of
  capturing carbon dioxide as the dominant coal
  technology in the United States and export that
  example worldwide.

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Carbon Sequestration

• Terrestrial sequestration (forest and
  agricultural crops)
• Underground injection a.k.a. geologic
  sequestration is not new
• Current fluid injection practiced for a wide
  range of industries, including summer natural gas
  storage, enhanced oil recovery, hazardous waste,
  oilfield brine
• Geology of MN may not lend itself to geologic
  sequestration Canadian Shield granite
• Still many questions

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Underground injection is not new
The mass of current U.S. fluid injections is
greater than the mass of current power plant CO2
emissions.
10000
Large quantities
Sub-seabed
Gases
Long Time Frame
1000
2.7 Gt
.5 Gt
Mt/year
100
150Mt
34 Mt
6Mt
10
28Mt
1.2 Mt
2 Mt
1
Oilfield Brine
Acid Gas
FL Municipal
Hazardous
Natural Gas
CO2 for
OCS water injected for EOR and brine disposal
OCS gases (e.g., NG)
Wastewater
Waste
Storage
EOR
Complied by EPP Ph.D. student E. Wilson with data
from EPA, 2001 Deurling, 2001 Keith, 2001
DOE, 2001 DOE, 2001.
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Geologic Formations with Carbon Sequestration
Potential
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State IGCC Experience

• States with existing IGCC power plants using coal
  as a feedstock
• Indiana 192 MW Wabash River plant
• Florida 262 MW unit at the Polk Station in
  Tampa, owned by Tampa Electric Co.
• Other gasification plants produce chemicals, not
  power, using coal, petcoke, petroleum, and/or
  gas. Examples
• North Dakota Great Plains Synfuels
• Texas Houston Oxochemicals
• Louisiana Baton Rouge Oxochemicals
• Tennessee Eastman Kodak

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In conclusion

• Getting serious about energy efficiency makes
  sense regardless of your views on global warming
  it is the ultimate no regrets strategy
• Ditto for renewables, esp. wind and biomass
• Coals predominance in the electric sector
  requires a carbon-neutral solution, e.g., coal
  gasification with carbon sequestration