A new project, a major investment. The United States has announced that it is investing $1.2 billion in two CO2 capture projects, ie “the biggest investment” ever made in this technology. It consists of offsetting carbon emissions by burying CO2 deep underground.
Located in Texas and Louisiana, the two projects are the first on this scale in the United States. They each aim to eliminate one million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 445,000 cars. An unprecedented project because each site aims to remove 250 times more CO2 than the largest capture site currently in operation, said the US Department of Energy.
A challenge for the United States because Iceland already has a head start with its Orca plant in service since the fall of 2021, whose annual capacity for capturing CO2 in the air is 4,000 tonnes. It is led by the Swiss company Climeworks, leader in the sector, and also at the helm of the project in Louisiana.
A controversial technology
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 27 atmospheric carbon capture sites are already in operation around the world, but on a small scale. This technology has a bright future as the IEA reports more than 130 projects under development. But it is also often misrepresented as a miracle solution, and is far from unanimous.
While capturing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere is one of the methods now considered necessary by the IPCC to combat global warming, this technology also has its detractors. The latter worry that such technology is a pretext to continue to emit greenhouse gases, masking the urgency of a transition in favor of clean energies.
For others, the two are not incompatible. The US Minister of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, sees it as a way to support the energy transition: “Reducing our emissions alone will not reverse the growing consequences of climate change; we also need to remove the CO2 that we have already emitted into the atmosphere”.
These techniques of direct capture in the air then storage underground, focus on the CO2 already emitted into the atmosphere. They differ from carbon capture and storage systems at source, at factory chimneys for example, which prevent additional emissions from entering the atmosphere.
Joe Biden’s government announced in May a plan to reduce CO2 emissions for gas and coal-fired power plants, focusing in particular on this second technique. All these investments are part of the major infrastructure plan adopted in 2021. $3.5 billion had already been announced by the Ministry of Energy for four projects in total.
With AFP
2023-08-11 17:39:24
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