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By Teresa Hansen, Senior Editor, Power Engineering
In mid July, I attended PennWell's Oil Sands and Heavy Oil Technologies Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As the name implies, the event focuses on technologies and issues surrounding oil production in the Alberta Oil Sands region. Although most of the event's content was unrelated to electricity generation , one major issue oil sands producers share with electricity generators is greenhouse gases, specifically CO2 emissions. Both industries face similar challenges and are looking at similar technologies when it comes to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions.
The need to deal with emissions was recently elevated in Alberta asthe government decided to no longer simply talk about CO2 curtailment, but actually implement a climate change plan. In 2007, Alberta became the first in North America to legislate greenhouse gas reductions on large industrial facilities, such as coal-fired electricity generating plants. The three-pronged plan focuses on 1) carbon capture and storage, 2) increasing energy efficiency and 3) greening energy production. The government expects the combination of these initiatives to deliver a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, or a 14 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2050. More specifically, the reduction plan is broken down as follows:
- By 2010, reduce emissions by 20 megatons.
- By 2020, reduce emissions by 50 megatons.
- By 2050, reduce emissions by 200 megatons.
Currently, only facilities that emit more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year are affected by the plan. These facilities are required to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 percent. They have three ways to meet these reduction targets. They can improve their operations, they can buy Alberta-based offset credits, or they can pay $15 (Canadian) for every ton of greenhouse gas they emit above their allowed limit. The funds go directly into the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund that will be used for projects and technologies aimed at reducing Alberta's greenhouse gas emissions. The plan includes future development of protocols for facilities that emit more than 50,000 tons of greenhouse gases, which will include smaller power plants, to report their emissions.
The government is counting heavily on carbon capture and sequestration technology to help affected facilities meet their goals. In fact, in early July Alberta's Premier Ed Stelmach announced that the government was committing C$2 billion (US$1.99 billion) to be spent on carbon capture and storage. According to Premier Stelmach, this is the world's largest single investment in carbon capture and storage technologies and is designed to spur three to five large-scale capture projects.
The money will come from the massive budget surplus the Alberta government expects this year from high oil prices and rising oil sands production. The Premier's comments during his announcement suggested that the surplus could be as high as $13.5 billion, although the figures are still being calculated for an update in late August.
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