The search for a material that can soak up high volumes of CO2, at a low cost, remains a tantalizing goal at labs around the world. Ideally such a material will mop up lots of CO2 under certain conditions, but…
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Fretting over a ‘valley of death’ for basic CCS research | Global CCS Institute
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
As Christopher Short pointed out on these pages earlier this week, American Electric Power (AEP)’s recently suspended operations at its Mountaineer project in West Virginia, a move which underscores how policy uncertainty is having a corrosive effect on viable CCS…
Review: Revenge of the Electric Car | OnEarth
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
Chris Paine’s 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? arrived with perfect timing, capturing the country’s collective frustration with sky-high energy prices as well as our growing disenchantment with the automotive alternatives on offer. Let’s hope his sequel, Revenge of the Electric Car,…
GM Upgrades OnStar to Power First Real-World, Smart Grid EV Pilot | GreenBiz
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
Hard to believe that OnStar — GM’s in-car mobile data service — celebrates its Sweet 16 this year. Back in 1995, when the service was launched for GM’s luxury line, pundits griped it was just a superfluous add-on. This was…
Business Loves Lighting Efficiency, So Why Try to Dim Efforts to Make a Better Bulb? | OnEarth
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
Efficiency is a generally considered a good thing. Good politics. Good business. That’s why efforts from national mileage standards for cars to rules requiring your refrigerator to use less energy have proven popular and effective, quietly spurring the gradual replacement…
Can big oil jump-start CCS? Expanding enhanced oil recovery could absorb decades’ worth of U.S. coal-plant CO2 emissions | Global CCS Institute
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
Just how big is the potential to sequester power-plant CO2 emissions into the U.S. oil patch? In a word, “vast,” says a recent report released last month by MIT and The University of Texas at Austin that evaluated the capacity…
Firing up first world’s first coal-fired CCS plant: Five questions for Southern Co | Global CCS Institute
by Adam Aston • • Comments Off
After two years of construction, Southern Co. flipped the switch on the world’s largest-scale, coal-fired CO2 capture facility at a site on the banks of the Mobile River, in Barry, Alabama last month. Teaming up with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Southern…