carbon capture and storage

Clean coal isn’t having much luck.

The latest project casualty is a carbon capture and storage plant planned for Kwinana, Australia – south of Perth.

BP pulled the plug on the $2 billion venture on account of an unforeseen geological defect in the area: The leaky rock formations can’t seem to seal in CO2 for the long-term.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) would take coal out of the ground, burn it for energy in coal plants and put the leftover gas back in the Earth where it came from.

It’s an idea whose time may never come, and here’s another reason why, from a new article in the Energy Tribune, Carbon Sequestration: Injecting Realities: The number of new wells needed to store the CO2 at large scales is likely to be huge and unrealistic.

As many as 100,000, in fact, depending on geological factors.