Toward a Commons Method of Cost Estimation for CO2 Capture and Storage at Fossil Fuel Power Plants

Publication Overview

To address the current state of CCS costs, a workshop was convened in March 2011 at which an international group of experts from industrial firms, government agencies, universities, and environmen tal organizations met to share information and perspectives on CCS costs for electric power plants [2]. A major conclusion of that work shop was that there are significant differences and inconsistencies in the way CCS costs are currently calculated and reported by various authors and organizations. As a consequence, there is a significant degree of confusion, misunderstanding, and mis-representation of CCS costs in the information now available publicly. These incon sistencies hamper the ability to correctly and systematically com pare the cost of different carbon capture options. They also distort comparisons between CCS and other greenhouse gas reduction measures—with potential consequences for both technology and policy developments.

Publication Summary

This paper has shown that there are significant differences in the methods currently used by different organizations to estimate the cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems for fossil fuel power plants. Many of these differences are not readily apparent in publicly reported CCS cost estimates, and the existence of such differences hampers rather than helps efforts to properly assess CCS costs and their relationship to other greenhouse gas control mea sures. Given the international importance of CCS as an option for climate change mitigation, efforts to systematize and improve the estimation and communication of CCS costs are thus especially urgent and timely. The CCS Costing Methods Task Force was formed to address this challenge, bringing together an international group of experts from industry, government and academia.