Technologies like carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) are needed to support the US' energy transition and could still be avenues for the coal industry, a former Energy Department official said today.
The oil and gas industry is adopting CCUS in "a big way," but the coal industry is divided on pushing the technology forward, Steven Winberg, chief executive of advocacy group Net-Negative CO2 Baseload Power and a former US assistant energy secretary under former president Donald Trump, told participants at the American Coal Council Spring Coal Forum in Clearwater, Florida.
"Some do not want anything to do with CCUS," he said. "Others want to see it progress."
Winberg urged coal market participants to put on a united front in support of CCUS if they want coal to survive in the 21st century. He warned CCUS equipment makers will not have a product for coal plants if they see there is no market.
Outside of CCUS, coal stakeholders could band together to file state or federal lawsuits to try to slow coal plant closures, Winberg said. Forestalling premature coal-fired unit retirements, protecting existing infrastructure and investing in CCUS could position the coal fleet for the future, he added.
Power plants that incorporate CCUS and co-fire with coal and biomass will have net-negative CO2 emissions, Winberg said. The facilities could also supply CO2 for the manufacture of carbon-based chemicals and building materials and other products that can use CO2.
Winberg said he has met with investor-owned utilities about CCUS, but none were interested in the technology for their coal plants.
While power plant owners in the past supported developing coal plant emission control technology such as scrubbers, "they are not there now for the coal industry," Winberg said. Generators' goals now are to cease burning coal, he said.
Neva Espinoza, vice president of energy supply and low-carbon resources at the Electric Power Research Institute, told conference attendees that all technologies that could put the US on the path to net-zero emissions need to be on table.
"CCUS is an absolute game changer," she said. "It creates a very, very different future. Can you do it without it? Yes, but it will be very painful."
Hydrogen, advanced nuclear power reactors and energy storage are among other technologies that cannot be ignored, she said.
Matt Preston, research director of Northern America coal markets at Wood Mackenzie, said some power generators are already running into reliability issues amid higher natural gas prices, coal plant closures and increased reliance on renewable energy.
But utilities are forging ahead with planned retirements as part of their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions by replacing coal capacity with renewables and natural gas.
Preston noted that "gas prices will be the main threat to continued strong coal demand." He is bearish on gas prices remaining at high levels by 2023, and higher oil prices could incentivize more drilling in the US, resulting in more associated gas production. And that could drive down gas prices sooner than expected, Preston said.
